Le Figaro Bordeaux
It is a new stone laid to make Bordeaux
“a solar city”.
An ambition for massive development of renewable energies supported by the mayor, ecologist Pierre Hurmic.
The roof of the Bordeaux submarine base, a huge reinforced concrete bunker built during the German occupation to accommodate Nazi submarines, could soon be covered with at least 9,200 m² of solar panels, to produce equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 130 Bordeaux households.
“This solarization of the roof of the submarine base is part of an overall project, of objectives and ambitions that we assigned ourselves from the start of our mandate”
, explains Pierre Hurmic, namely
“to bring field responses
to the climate emergency
”
.
The town hall notably aims to achieve 41% energy autonomy by 2026 on its public assets, with the installation of 60,000 m² of photovoltaic panels in the city, of which
“half are already deployed or in the process of being deployed »
, particularly in gymnasiums, schools and car parks.
To achieve his ambition of making Bordeaux
“a city that shines”
, the Bordeaux councilor wishes
to “embark as many partners as possible in this adventure”
, starting with the inhabitants.
“We want to set an example and for the people of Bordeaux to show the same audacity to solarize their building roofs.”
In 2023, 276 requests for solar panel installations were made in Bordeaux, of which only six were refused, due to heritage and architectural constraints.
“We must install solar panels where the ground is already artificial
,” insists Pierre Hurmic, who also defends a photovoltaic shade project on the ring road, which should soon be tested on an urban boulevard.
Bomb impacts still visible
With its 600,000 m³ of concrete, the submarine base is however not an ordinary public building.
Built between 1941 and 1943, it is made up of eleven cells including four afloat basins and seven dewatering basins, designed to accommodate up to fifteen submarines.
Its roof is covered with reinforced concrete approximately six meters thick, in order to resist enemy bomb fire.
The 41,000 m² of roof also includes around forty impacts, on which spontaneous vegetation develops.
Today, it mainly hosts the Bassins de Lumières, a cultural space offering immersive exhibitions throughout the year.
Present on the roofs of the submarine base this Monday morning, Vincent Cassagnaud, architect of the buildings of France, admits that he was
"a little surprised"
when the possibility of putting solar panels on the submarine base was mentioned.
Despite a “slightly rough”
first meeting
with the municipal team, the architect is pleased that after successive meetings, two exclusion zones were decided, so that the installed solar panels do not have an impact notable on the visual perception of this historic building, with its
“massive and graphic”
architecture .
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“A public heritage scrutinized”
The call for expressions of interest will end on April 19 and the roof should be equipped with solar panels from July 2025. Several constraints, however, mean that the surface area that will be used could range from 9,200 to 25,000 m².
In addition to the presence of the bomb guards, the central part is also too far away to be reached by a crane boom and could require the design of a machine or installation by helicopter.
However, the town hall wants as much of it as possible to be covered with panels.
After the underwater base, other public buildings could in turn benefit from the installation of solar panels, such as the Lescure park where the Chaban-Delmas stadium is located.
“We are in the process of sifting through our entire heritage, building by building
,” explains Claudine Bichet, deputy mayor in charge of energy transition.
It's not just the roofs of the submarine base that will change their face shortly.
At its feet, a new four-hectare Bordeaux public garden should see the light of day in 2025, on a former wasteland covered with concrete slabs.