Q Energy starts building Europe's largest floating solar plant
Developer owned by Korea's Hanwha is developing more than 300MW of floating PV in France as part of a 15GW renewables pipeline in Europe
Q Energy at the end of this month will start building the 74.3MW Les Ilots Blandin solar farm in northwestern France, which the developer owned by Korean conglomerate Hanwha claimed will be Europe’s largest floating solar plant to date.
Construction on the site of a former quarry in the Haute-Marne region is slated to take around 18 months. The developer will build the plant over a 127-hectare site of former gravel pits which ceased to be operated in 2020. It will feature 134,649 solar modules fixed on floats to form six islands anchored to the banks or to the bottom of the flooded pits.
The plant will supply the equivalent of 37,000 inhabitants with renewable power.
“Les Ilots Bladin is a wonderful example of how water areas can make an important contribution to the energy transition,” Q Energy France managing director Jean-Francois Petit said.
“Q Energy is continuously focusing on new technologies to make further areas usable in harmony with nature and to supply Europe with green electricity.”
The company currently has a development pipeline of more than 300MW of floating PV projects, mainly in areas where former quarries existed.
The developer in total has a 6GW development pipeline in France and of more than 15GW across Europe.
The commissioning of the plant is scheduled for the first quarter of 2025.
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