Photovoltaic panels as far as the eye can see.
This Thursday, the largest urban power plant in Europe was inaugurated in Bordeaux (Gironde).
Located in the Bordeaux Lac district, the site has actually been in operation for a year, reports France Bleu.
The Labarde power station, as it was called, extends over more than 60 ha, or about two and a half times the area of the Champ-de-Mars.
These 135,000 solar panels should be able to produce the equivalent of the electricity consumption of 70,000 people, excluding heating, specifies JP Energie Environnement (JPee), the operator.
The panels planned to last 35 years, produced by an American company in Vietnam and Malaysia, were installed on the site of a former landfill, specifies Sud-Ouest.
“The land was rehabilitated between 2004 and 2009 using in particular a waterproof membrane,” add our colleagues from France Bleu.
A giant project not far from there is disputed
“After 35 years, either we dismantle the plant, or we start on a new project, explains the general manager of JPee, Xavier Nass.
The panels will be recycled, 90% since it is mainly glass and semiconductor materials.
To maintain the site, 150 sheep and five goats have been brought to the site near the Garonne.
Read alsoDisneyland Paris: the largest solar power plant in Île-de-France installed in the visitor parking lot
But photovoltaic field installations are not always unanimous in the region.
The Gironde, France's leading producer of solar electricity, is facing opposition over the hosting of a new 1,000 ha photovoltaic park in Saucats, south of Bordeaux.
In October 2019, the first floating photovoltaic power plant in France and the most powerful in Europe was inaugurated in Piolenc in the Vaucluse.
