A photovoltaic panel farm located at sea, a first in France

“Offshore photovoltaic has enormous potential since we can deploy gigafarms, which are more competitive and less expensive than onshore solar or wind power,” explained Armand Thiberge, president and co-founder of the company Solarinblue, also founder of Sendinblue, on Friday. .

“In Sète, we will occupy an area” which corresponded to “the former station for unloading hydrocarbons at sea”, he added, stressing that this installation had been largely facilitated by the Occitanie region.

Located 1,5 km from the seawall, each unit is made up of a steel structure supporting photovoltaic modules three and a half meters above the surface of the water, capable of following the sun thanks to an electric cylinder.

This structure rests on floats, while the entire farm is anchored to the bottom of the water by four anchor points.

Unlike floating photovoltaic panels on lakes, which already exist in France, "our structures can withstand swells of 10 meters and winds of 200 km / h", added Armand Thiberge.

After these first two units, the rest of the farm will be gradually launched to reach an area of ​​0,5 hectares by the end of the year, with a production target of 300 kilowatts by 2024.

An electricity production intended to supply, by an undersea cable, the infrastructures of the port, in particular a fish factory, and the ferries in transit.

"In France, RTE's maximized scenario is 200 GW of solar to be installed by 2050," recalled Mr. Thiberge.

"We will not achieve this objective if we do not invest the seafronts", specified the regional director of ADEME, Camille Fabre.

The total cost of the project is 2,5 million euros, half of which is matched by public funding (ADEME and the Evolen association).

The conclusions of an environmental impact study carried out upstream of the project indicate that "the marine species present on the site will be little impacted" and specify that "the risk of disturbance [of the birds] can be considered low".

In the future, these gigafarms could cohabit with offshore wind farms. "A colocation would be relevant, if only to pool the costs of the transmission cable for electricity production", according to Mr. Thiberge.