French developer to build 129 MW of solar-aviary capacity

French renewable energy producer Unite, fresh from announcing a 10 MW solar aviary project in October in Brinon-sur-Sauldre, France, is now gearing up to build 10 additional PV aviaries with a cumulative capacity of 127 MW of solar.

The company said it plans to complete four of them in spring 2024 and the remaining six in January 2025. The projects were secured in the most recent tender by French regulator CRE for commercial and industrial PV.

Unite will construct PV aviaries for poultry farms to generate renewable electricity, provide shaded areas, and enhance flight space for animals. The solar plants will incorporate structures and nets to prevent the intrusion of migratory birds, reducing the risk of disease transmission to livestock.

Established in 1985, Unite has more than 60 operational power generation sites, with 120 under development, amounting to 1.6 GW of capacity. Initially focused on small hydroelectric power plants, the company has since diversified its portfolio over the years.

“This activity gives us a valuable territorial anchor because we have been present for decades in the regions and local residents know us,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine in October. “However, given the increasingly significant constraints imposed on projects on French rivers, we have decided to continue our activity in small hydroelectricity, but at a less sustained pace. We will build one power plant per year, so as not to lose our know-how, and at the same time, we are making a real change of scale in solar.”