What if the production of renewable energy, as virtuous as it is, had to deal with a certain number of paradoxes? This is the question that Bertrand Cardinal could well ask himself today. Thursday, November 14, the president of the Citizen Energy Production Cooperative (Coopec) Aunis Atlantique returned to the photovoltaic park project planned at Grands Écluseaux, in Marans. The site is a former bri (clay) quarry which was backfilled with household waste in the 1980s, before being closed permanently.
Unsuitable for cultivation and grazing, the site has paradoxically become a true sanctuary of biodiversity, a haven of peace for certain species of reptiles and birds. “Following environmental impact studies, the photovoltaic operating surface area will have to go from just over 11 hectares to only 3. This new project is sized to produce between 3 to 5 peak megawatts. From 3, it’s viable,” explains Bertrand Cardinal. There remains the compensatory and compulsory measures which seem to leave the mayor of Marans, Jean-Marie Bodin, at the very least perplexed and thoughtful: “We have marked out six hectares on the island of Marans, behind the old Durand construction sites, towards the shared gardens and the Marans hen conservatory henhouse. They are planned so that the biodiversity of the Grands Écluseaux can move there. »
Andilly from summer 2025
The Marans photovoltaic park should not be operational before 2028 for a construction cost of between 3 and 4 million euros. Unlike that of Andilly which should start producing energy at the end of summer 2025. It too is installed on a former quarry and its cost is estimated this time at one million euros.
“But this is different, because we are on a peak production of less than 1 megawatt. So there is no need for an environmental impact study, just a diagnosis. However, you must ask the prefect for an exemption from environmental impact studies. He said he was OK and signed the order,” continues Bertrand Cardinal.
And wind power?
On May 17, the president of Coopec, the authorities and elected officials of the region will inaugurate the Andilly wind farm supported, among others, by Coopec Aunis Atlantique. The three wind turbines of this first citizen wind farm in Charente-Maritime, with a height of 200 meters at the end of the blade, started turning in June of this year. But after a little more than half a year of operation, the matter is less simple than it seems.
“The first months of operation are not significant. We are forced to frequently stop the rotation of the three wind turbines, at the risk of losing money. The purchase price by our service provider of the energy they produce has collapsed. This is clearly below what had been planned,” confides the president of Coopec Aunis Atlantique. Nevertheless, he is readily optimistic for the future: “In 2025, we will sign a twenty-year fixed price sales contract for the electricity produced by the three machines. »
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