The construction site in Gétigné, near Nantes in western France, visibly marks a turning point in our energy supply. Soon clean and climate-friendly electricity will be produced on exactly the same grounds where once radioactive uranium was reprocessed.
On site, the French subsidiary of the globally-operating juwi group developed a 3.7 MW free-field photovoltaic plant. The grounds of the former uranium repressing plant have been abandoned since 1991.
Construction work began in April. The plant is scheduled to be fully operational in summer 2014. Then, 30,000 solar modules are going to convert the power of the sun into climate-friendly electricity. The utility-scale power plant has an installed capacity of 3.7 MWp and annually produces safe and clean electricity for 600 local households.
"We are very proud to have this project being realized in our community. It is our small contribution to a greener future," Francois Guillot, mayor of Gétigné, says. "By taking the special history of the project site into account, we are even happier that the construction works finally started."
Since 2008, the municipality of Gétigné, local partner Enertime and juwi have been pushing the development of the solar park. Due to cuts in the French remuneration system for solar energy, the plants layout had to be redesigned several times for keeping it economically viable.
"Nevertheless, I am very happy that we pursued the project. It is fantastic to see the solar park growing, Nicolas Pagès, managing director of juwi France, states. "The benefits the solar park offers to the region were worth pursuing the project. Thanks to the good cooperation between the municipality, Enertime and the future owner and operator of the utility scale power plant, Photosol, we were able to react very well to the changing external conditions."
David Guinard, Photosol's general manager, says "The Gétigné project combines technical, environmental and social aspects and can therefore be considered a true role model for the energy turnaround."
The plant is scheduled to be fully operational this summer.
