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14/04/2011
A new Photovoltaic installation concept, eco-friendly project
CIEL ET TERRE is developping the first floating large scale photovoltaic installation in EUROPE
Category: en_US
Posted by: arthur
Following an intense collaboration with the state administrative services, CIEL ET TERRE has gone today for its first planning permission procedure for its first large scale floating PV power plant, based in Piolenc (south east France) on a lake site formed from gravel extraction. It is the first floating PV project in Europe. An ecofriendly project, it will turn the city of Piolenc, owner of the lake, into a positive energy one.
The partnership between Ciel et Terre and the city of Piolenc has enabled the development of this innovating,eco-friendly and economically viable project: the first floating solar PV plant in Europe.
Equipped with 40 000 PV arrays on a floating pontoon, conceived and set up by Ciel et Terre, the installation will reach 12 MWp on a surface of 21 hectares. This has the capacity to produce 16 000 MWh per year, which could provide the yearly consumption of 5,700 French households (approximately 2900 kwh per year and per household), which represents at least twice as much of the annual electricity consumption of the City of Piolenc. The cost of the investment is estimated to be 35 million euros.
With this project, the city of Piolenc wishes to give new direction and strength to its environmental values by rehabilitating an industrial disused site on an area of a quarry gravel exploitation site.
A new way to produce electricity from solar radiation.
In the wake of the new photovoltaic sector regulations, Ciel et Terre innovates by creating floating PV arrays (on industrial reservoirs, irrigation reservoirs, lakes formed from gravel extraction) based on patented technology.The structure can be totally dismantled and recycled, and is manufactured in France. The installation situated in the center of the water area does not have any impact on either the banks or the surrounding biodiversity such as the fauna and flora. This new way of designing solar electricity is technically viable and economically profitable. This Project is labialised by the CapEnergies French cluster.
Ciel et Terre is expanding and have four other ongoing applications for planning permission for floating PV projects which will have a 35 MWp capacity and is developing its international activity through new partnerships.