While there are already solar farms placed on lakes, SolarinBlue is the first company to develop offshore photovoltaic panels;
at sea, then.
The company is starting to deploy the first farm of this type off Sète (Hérault), with constraints specific to the marine environment.
The panels are 3.5 meters above the water, fixed to a floating structure, itself anchored to the bottom of the sea. Everything is designed to withstand waves of 10 meters;
"to all the storms crossed for ten years",
affirms Armand Thiberge, the president of SolarinBlue.
The main advantage of its solution is to make the sea a formidable land reserve, while the footprint of photovoltaics is one of the main obstacles to its development.
“We could deploy our farms between offshore wind turbines,”
adds Armand Thiberge, saying his solution has little impact on the marine environment.
The sun's rays still reach the surface of the ocean.
Read alsoWhen photovoltaic floats on water
This is not his first start-up.
He is also the CEO and founder of Sendinblue, one of the greatest successes (a unicorn) of French Tech.
But, apart from the last syllable of their name, the two companies don't have much in common.
I grew up with the idea of global warming.
As an entrepreneur, you had to do something
Armand Thiberge, creator of SolarinBlue
Sendinblue is an online marketing specialist.
“I grew up with the idea of global warming.
As an entrepreneur, something had to be done”,
simply explains Armand Thiberge, who therefore created SolarinBlue with
“Aurélien Croq, a friend from the microrocket club, when we were 15”.
Their ambition is to deploy 1 gigawatt on the seas by 2030, in France, Europe and India.