Engie, Suez eye 1-GW solar roll-out at waste facilities

Solar farm in France. Featured Image: Mny-Jhee/Shutterstock.com

March 6 (Renewables Now) - French electric utility Engie SA (EPA:ENGI) and water and waste specialist Suez SA (EPA:SEV) today said they are teaming up to develop solar power parks with an estimated total capacity of 1 GW at recycling and recovery waste storage facilities.

The plans call for Engie to design, build and operate photovoltaic (PV) power plants at about 100 sites in mainland France.

The first project will be a 12-MW ground-mounted installation at the Drambon storage facility in the Cote-d'Or department in eastern France and will be launched in 2018, the companies said.

The Suez sites identified for the initiative are mainly waste recycling and treatment facilities that are situated on large plots of land throughout France. Most of these plants already produce biogas. The plans include tapping into the potential of hydrogen in future.

Engie had 900 MW of installed solar and 1,800 MW of installed wind capacity in France at the end of 2017. It wants to reach 2.2 GW of solar and 3 GW wind by the end of 2021.

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