Ciel et Terre launches Europe's first solar power plant on water

 After close consultation with state services, CIEL ET TERRE is today filing the building permit for its first major project floating solar power plant, based in PIOLENC (84) on a quarry lake at the end of its exploitation. It is the first photovoltaic power plant project on water in Europe. An eco-responsible, positive energy project for the town of PIOLENC, owner of the body of water.

The partnership between Ciel et Terre and the town of Piolenc has made it possible to develop this innovative, eco-responsible and economically viable project: the first solar power plant on water in Europe.

Equipped with 40 crystalline photovoltaic modules installed on a floating structure (raft), designed and installed by Ciel et Terre, the plant will have a power output of 000 kWp over an area of 12 hectares. This represents an electricity production capacity of 000 MWh per year, the equivalent of the annual energy consumption of nearly 21 households in France. (approximately 2900 kWh per year per household of 4 people), more than twice the electricity consumption of the town of Piolenc. The cost of the investments is estimated at 2 million euros.

With this project, the town of Piolenc wishes to give an even stronger meaning to its environmental values, by rehabilitating an industrial site at the end of its exploitation on part of the aggregate quarry.

A new way of designing electricity from solar energy.

As part of the new regulations for the photovoltaic sector, Ciel et Terre is innovating by creating lake-based solar power plants (industrial basins, irrigation basins, former quarry lakes, etc.), based on patented technologies; the entire floating structure is removable, recyclable, and made in France. The construction, located in the center of the body of water, has no impact on the banks, nor on the biodiversity, fauna, and flora of the body of water. This new way of designing electricity is technically efficient and economically profitable. The Project is certified by the CapEnergies competitiveness cluster.

Ciel et Terre does not intend to stop there and plans to file four other building permits for solar water projects by the end of 2011 (35MWc) and is already forming partnerships abroad.

HEAVEN AND EARTH in Brief Since 2006, Ciel et Terre has been designing, operating, and developing large-scale industrial rooftop photovoltaic solar power plants in France and Réunion Island (over 2 m²) and on the ground, dedicated to the production of clean energy. Ciel et Terre currently has over 000 m² of rooftops installed, representing a power output of 200 MWp.    www.ciel-et-terre.net

The town of PIOLENC in Brief : Town of nearly 5 inhabitants, with an area of 000km² located in the heart of Vaucluse (24.8). Economy: viticulture. Mayor of Piolenc: Mr. Louis DRIEY. Tel:  www.mairie-piolenc.fr

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