French energy company TotalEnergies has switched on its largest solar power plant in France with 55 MW capacity in Gien (Loiret). The system was partly financed through crowdfunding; 212 locals together pooled in €2,200,000 for the facility.
The facility is sited on 75 hectares of land with 126,000 solar panels. Once fully ramped up, it is expected to generate around 64 GWh annually which will be enough to cater to 38,000 people.
TotalEnergies said it will operate and maintain the facility during all 30 years of its operation. "This commissioning contributes to the country's energy transition and is a further step towards our objective of achieving 4 GW of production capacity from renewable sources by 2025," said the company's Managing Director Thierry Muller.
The company also shared having won 51 MW of solar power capacity during the French government's 10th call for tenders launched by the Energy Regulatory Commission as CRE4. It will develop this capacity in the form of 8 projects, all of which will be commissioned by the end of 2023.
TotalEnergies counts having secured 707 MW of solar power capacity in all CRE tenders, placing it on 2nd position among all developers in France with Engie being on top.
At the end of September 2021, the company had gross renewable electricity production capacity of 10 GW which it intends to grow to 35 GW by 2025 and 100 GW by 2030, comprising solar and wind energy sources.
To achieve this end, the French company is not limiting itself to France alone, but is expanding to various other markets, even those beyond Europe. Recently, it entered agreements with the Government of Libya to develop 500 MW grid connected solar PV capacity in the African nation (see 500 MW Solar PV Capacity For Libya).