Michael COUDYSER, CEO of Corsica Sole, an innovator in photovoltaics, and Pascal MILLET, Director of the Arkema plant in Saint-Auban, has inaugurated a solar power plant within this plant, in the presence of René MASSETTE, President of the Departmental Council of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. This solar power plant is one of the first ones in France to be integrated into the very heart of a Seveso-classified industrial site.
Giving degraded land a second life
With a power of 10 MWp, its annual production will be equal to 19 GWh. It covers 10 of the 51 hectares of the plant, itself specialized in the production of solvents for the manufacture of fluoropolymers. The Saint-Auban site has the special feature of being fully located within the perimeter of an operating Seveso-classified industrial site.
Much of the industrial brownfield land at the plant has been repurposed in this way, solar power offering it a second, more environmentally friendly, life. This contaminated land formerly served as the location of solvent production workshops.
Seveso sites, a source of land for solar power
The energy produced is used for local consumption to power the operation of the Arkema plant. This environmentally fragile industrial site thus becomes a driver of clean solutions, producing and consuming green energy.
More generally speaking, this innovative project shows that the operation of Seveso sites offers promising solutions for dealing with the lack of land in France available for the installation of photovoltaic units.
A strategy based on innovation and sustainable development
This plant is proof of Corsica Sole’s capacity to provide new responses to complex problems. Innovation is in our DNA. We have already shown this with the opening of the first plant with energy storage in 2015 in Corsica and construction of the first solar parasol in the world by our subsidiary, Driv’Eco, in 2016.
This project is part of the sustainable development and energy transition policy of Arkema. It’s why we supported the Corsica Sole project and participated actively in its implementation. We are also in charge of maintenance for Corsica Sole. We would like to build on this experience to implement renewable energy solutions on other sites of the Group.
Winner of the 2016 call for tenders of the Commission de régulation de l'énergie (the French energy regulation commission), the Saint-Auban plant represents an investment of 13 million euros with a 20-year fixed–rate power purchase agreement.