Independent French asset manager RGreen Invest and agrivoltaic company Sun'Agri have launched a new initiative through which they aim to help 300 agricultural farms benefit from the installation of solar PV systems promoting the concept of agrivoltaic. The project is called Cultivons Demain, loosely translating into let's cultivate for tomorrow. They are inviting all public and private stakeholders to join the initiative.
Through the project, they plan to cover between 1,500 to 2,000 hectares of land to enable these improve their agricultural yields, save water and face the impact of climate change. With solar panels to generate clean electricity on site, agrivoltaic farms will support transition to a safe and zero carbon electricity generation.
Solar panels should be deployed above the plantations and controlled using algorithms tailored to the needs of the plant, reported local media referring to a joint statement of the 2 partners. They have also released a charter to declare the aims and objectives of this initiative.
The partners aim to raise €1 billion ($1.2 billion) investment under a dedicated financing structure called Râcine. RGreen Invest has committed €50 million equity to the initiative through its Infragreen IV fund, which it says will allow €200 million ($237 million) to be raised as equity and senior debt.
In March 2020, Total Quadran entered a partnership with the Agricultual Cooperative Union InVivo Group to develop 500 MW solar PV capacity in France by 2025 on agricultural land (see Total Quadran To Explore Agrivoltaic Segment In France). It followed up the news with another partnership with Next2Sun of Germany to deploy bifacial solar panels in vertical installations for French agrivoltaic projects (see French & German Partnership For Agrivoltaics).
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