Iberdrola SA (BME:IBE) has made the winning bid in a tender to build a 25-MWp floating solar plant in eastern France’s Alsace region, on the border with Germany and Switzerland, the Spanish electric utility said on Friday.
The floating photovoltaic (PV) park will be installed on the basin of the Bischwiller gravel pit, the land of which is partially owned by the municipality. Planned to cover an area of roughly 13.5 hectares, the system will feed into the grid 27 GWh of electricity annually, or enough to cover the consumption of almost 10,000 local homes.
The project, secured in а competitive round held by the municipality of Kurtzenhouse in June last year, is set to create Iberdrola’s first floating solar plant in France. Early in 2024, the Spanish firm will complete the environmental and technical studies it commenced earlier this year in order to identify the most suitable technological solution for the project.
Iberdrola expects to apply for a building permit in the spring of 2024. Commercial operations are planned to be achieved late in the summer of 2026.
In France, Iberdrola operates 118 MW of wind parks and is working on an 800-MW pipeline of onshore wind and solar schemes. The company’s plan is to spend about EUR 4 billion (USD 4.29bn) for projects in the country by 2025, mainly in the renewable energy field.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.072)
Source: renewablesnow
