Chartered accountant for renewable energy

A chartered accountant specialised in renewable energy secures the points a generalist rarely masters: revenue recognition under the purchase obligation or the market premium, the dismantling provision and asset imposed from commissioning, the flat-rate tax on network companies (IFER), and project finance through a dedicated company. These topics weigh directly on profit, tax and borrowing capacity.

As a solar or wind electricity producer, you operate a heavy asset over two to three decades, within a regulated framework that fixes much of your revenue in advance. This visibility is valuable, but it comes with specific accounting and tax obligations that must be framed from the first financial year.

A construction company builds the farm or the power plant, then delivers the works: its turnover is works revenue. A renewable energy producer keeps the asset and operates it: its revenue comes from the electricity sold, year after year. If your activity is closer to construction, the accounting approach differs and we cover it on our dedicated construction sector page. Likewise, a sustainability or non-financial reporting engagement is not the same as a producer's bookkeeping: it falls under our ESG advisory and reporting work.

Our reading. In this sector, routine bookkeeping stays standard. The difficulties lie in three points: how you recognise revenue, how you provision dismantling, and how you present your accounts to lenders. A mistake on any of these three points is costly, either in tax or in financing capacity.

Two main support mechanisms frame electricity sales, operated by EDF Obligation d'Achat.

Under the purchase obligation (OA), EDF, or a local distribution company, buys your output at a regulated tariff set by the contract, independent of the market price. You sell either the whole output or only the surplus where you self-consume part of it. Turnover then equals the electricity actually delivered, valued at that tariff. Period matching relies on the metering indexes and the purchase statements.

Under the market premium (CR), you sell your electricity on the market yourself and additionally receive a premium equal to the difference between a reference tariff and a reference market price. Turnover therefore combines two components: the market sale and the premium. Depending on the technology, these contracts run from 12 to 20 years.

The underestimated risk. The precise period allocation of the market premium should be confirmed case by case, by reading the contract. Assuming a treatment by analogy with the OA, without checking the actual premium terms, exposes you to a profit shift from one year to the next. We settle this point on the documents.

This is the point young producers anticipate the least, yet it is a legal obligation. For wind power, article L515-46 of the environmental code makes the operator, or its parent company in the event of default, responsible for dismantling and restoring the site. It requires financial guarantees to be set up from the start of production, reassessed every five years.

The amended order of 26 August 2011 quantifies these guarantees: 50,000 euros per turbine with a unit installed capacity of 2 MW or less, plus 25,000 euros per additional MW above 2 MW.

On the accounting side, the French general accounting plan organises the treatment of this obligation. The initial estimate of dismantling, removal and site restoration costs is included in the entry value of the fixed asset: this is the dismantling asset, recorded against a provision on the liabilities side. This asset then follows its own depreciation schedule over the useful life of the installation. The obligation arises from construction and commissioning, not at the end of the farm's life.

In practice. We distinguish the financial guarantee required by regulation, which is a security enforceable against the administration, from the accounting provision, which translates the obligation into your accounts. We document the cost assumption used, the depreciation rate of the dismantling asset and the reassessment calendar.

The flat-rate tax on network companies

IFER is an annual local flat-rate tax targeting electricity generation facilities with a capacity of at least 100 kW. Article 1519 D of the tax code covers wind and tidal; article 1519 F covers photovoltaic and hydropower. Crossing the 100 kW threshold therefore changes your local tax exposure. We check the applicable article by technology, the exact scope of the installation and the filing calendar, then build the IFER into the forecast to avoid an unpleasant surprise during operation.

Financing through a project company

A farm is most often held by a project company (Special Purpose Vehicle, SPV), dedicated to a single asset. It is financed by project debt, generally non-recourse or limited-recourse on the sponsors: lenders are repaid from the cash flows generated by the farm, secured by the OA or CR contract. They monitor debt service coverage ratios throughout the life of the financing.

In this set-up, the forecast and the reporting carry a lot of weight. To anticipate a project's borrowing capacity, you can rely on our borrowing capacity and operating cash-flow simulator. And when the project company needs ongoing financial steering, we step in as an outsourced CFO.

This example is an illustration, with no identifiable client. A project company operates a photovoltaic farm commissioned during the year, under a purchase obligation contract. At year-end, three issues collide. First, turnover must be aligned with the output actually delivered, not the cash received. Second, the dismantling asset and the related provision were not set up at commissioning, which distorts both the balance sheet and the depreciation schedule. Third, with the 100 kW threshold crossed, IFER had not been budgeted.

Our intervention consists in rebuilding revenue from the metering indexes, recording the dismantling asset and provision with a documented cost assumption, and building IFER into the forecast. The result: accounts that withstand a lender's review and a stabilised taxable result, with no last-minute corrections.

• Recording cash received instead of the output delivered, which shifts turnover by a year and distorts profit.
• Forgetting the dismantling asset and provision at commissioning, when the obligation arises from construction.
• Confusing the regulatory financial guarantee with the accounting provision, two notions that coexist without substituting for each other.
• Failing to budget IFER after crossing the 100 kW threshold, and discovering the tax during operation.
• Treating the market premium by analogy with the OA, without rereading the actual contract terms.
• Presenting lenders with a forecast that does not track coverage ratios, which weakens the financing file.

2026 watch points. The precise IFER tariffs and certain terms of the support contracts change over time: every figure per kilowatt and every tariff must be checked at the application date, on the official source, before any filing. We keep this watch and adapt your file case by case.

Hayot Expertise, based at 58 rue de Monceau in the 8th district of Paris, supports asset-based, financially intensive structures. In renewable energy, our work focuses on the sector's three key points: revenue recognition under OA or the market premium, the dismantling asset and provision, and the reading of the accounts that lenders expect in project finance.

Samuel Hayot, chartered accountant registered with the Île-de-France Order of Chartered Accountants and statutory auditor registered on the list drawn up by the Haute autorité de l'audit (H2A), oversees these files. We work from the documents and document every sensitive choice.

This page informs and does not replace a review of your situation: revenue recognition, the dismantling estimate and the IFER scope are confirmed in light of your contracts, your installations and the law in force. Let us discuss your project to frame your file.

Updated 19 June 2026. Sources: environmental code, EDF Obligation d'Achat, French general accounting plan (ANC), tax code.