“We feel completely abandoned by the state, plague Alexis Powilewicz, director of the Paris aquarium.
We arrive at the end of the year with increasingly crazy electricity bills.
And we have no help from the public authorities… I still can't ask my fish to stop breathing from 8 am to 10 am and from 4 pm to 7 pm to save energy!
“, he fumes.
Since the start of 2022, the Paris aquarium, which has 30 tanks, 11,000 fish and invertebrates, and more than 400 coral colonies, has already seen its electricity bill explode by at least 329% per year. compared to 2021. And the nightmare is far from over.
From October, the private establishment will have to pay an invoice estimated at 400,000 euros per month.
For comparison, in 2021, the establishment paid 30,000 euros per month.
That's an insane leap of 1,233%!
“We will not be able to pay between 500 and 1,000 euros per megawatt hour as is looming.
We risk bankruptcy,” fears Alexis Powilewicz.
In order not to endanger the living collection of the aquarium and put the key under the door, he decided to invest in a generator to lower the price of the megawatt hour to 300 euros and to compensate for possible power cuts this winter. .
“I don't like this idea and I admit feeling guilty.
I hope not to have to use it… But if prices soar even more and the state does nothing for our sector, we will no longer have a choice, he regrets.
That the aquarium of Paris, which is an institution of environmental education, is forced to pollute… It is something terrible for us.
But it's the only way.
Because if I have no more electricity, my fish die… And if I have to buy electricity at 1,200 euros per megawatt hour, I go bankrupt”, he laments again.
