It is quite a symbol, a whole page of French industrial history of the XIXth and XXth century which continues to be turned, that of the coal mines, the black gold of the North and around the Creusot… A past omnipresent in the memory collective but now well over.
A solar power plant will come into service by the end of the month in the territory of the municipality of Sanvignes-les-Mines (Saône-et-Loire), on a former open-cast mine.
The switch from the Montceau-les-Mines mining basin to solar energy was not particularly successful, since the dossier for the creation of a 14 hectare solar park will have required nearly a decade of procedures.
But above all, in 2014, the Montceau thermal power station, which was then powered by coal supplied from South Africa and / or Australia, was expected to switch to gas.
The project was ultimately unsuccessful.
And the idea of converting the coal-fired power station into a household waste incineration plant has also been abandoned.
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"The solar power plant will have a power of 14 megawatts, with an annual production estimated at 14,500 megawatts", specifies Jean-Claude Lagrange, the mayor of Sanvignes.
Or the equivalent of the electricity consumption of 300 homes, so more than the municipality.
The path bordering the old mine should be developed and marked to offer an educational approach around solar energy.
The commune of Sanvignes could become the first in Burgundy and undoubtedly the first in France to have two solar power plants on its territory.
“We hope to build another of about fifteen hectares on the old open-cast mine of Saint-Amédée.
This requires the agreement of the company that has become the owner of the land, ”announces Jean-Claude Lagrange.
