TotalEnergies announced on Friday that it was giving up setting up its new Research and Development center dedicated to new energies and electricity near the campus of the Polytechnique engineering school in Saclay, due to a "significant delay" in the construction of the building.
“Under these conditions, TotalEnergies has decided to settle as of this year, as planned, on the Saclay plateau (south-west of Paris, editor’s note) in premises intended to accommodate business innovation centers to establish sustainably its New Energies & Electricity R&D division”, explains the group in its press release.
For its part, the École polytechnique indicated on Friday that it had taken “note and regret the decision taken by TotalEnergies”.
"The decision does not call into question the partnerships with TotalEnergies which are all maintained (in particular with the LPICM as well as the interdisciplinary centers Energy4Climate and Hi! PARIS of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris)", also specified the prestigious school.
Several associations opposed the arrival of Total on the Polytechnique campus.
The NGOs Greenpeace and Anticor and the association of students and former students of the École Polytechnique, the Sphinx, announced last April that they had filed a complaint against the CEO of the Total group, Patrick Pouyanné.
They accused the latter, who sits on the board of directors (CA) of the prestigious engineering school, of conflict of interest.
