France’s first offshore solar park in Mediterranean secures €6 million in public funding

Offshore solar, southern France, SolarinBlue

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From pv magazine France

SolarinBlue, which develops offshore photovoltaic solar parks for difficult conditions (waves of more than 10 meters, winds of 200 km/h), has obtained €6 million in funding for its 1 MWp offshore PV plant as part of the France 2030 program.

The 1 MWp Méga Sète pre-commercial demonstrator project will be deployed off the coast of Sète, 2 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast on the site of a former offshore oil unloading station. The floating solar park is expected to generate more than 1,300 MWh. Electricity will be transported by undersea cable to power the infrastructure of the port of Sète-Frontignan as part of its decarbonization strategy.

Backed by a consortium that includes SolarinBlue, engineering company Technip Energies and the universities of Montpellier and Sorbonne-Oceanological Observatory of Banyuls-Sur-Mer, Méga Sète is expected to be commissioned in 2025 to replace the first Sun'Sète demonstrator, inaugurated in 2023 with a capacity of 300 kWp. Each module float, especially designed to withstand high seas and swells, is 12 meters long and wide and can accommodate 20 PV panels, for a combined capacity of 10 kWp, installed at a height of 3.5 meters so as not to be in contact with sea water.

“Méga Sète will be certified for waves of more than 10 meters: our technology is ready to be used in ports, island territories and integrated into offshore wind farms,” said SolarinBlue CEO Aurélien Croq.

The company aims to use its technology to establish synergies with offshore wind farms, whether fixed or floating, to share the same connection and reduce investments, with the goal to to launch the first European projects of 1 GW by 2030.

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