The Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis and the CARBON company have today committed to developing a large center of innovation and excellence for the photovoltaic industry in Istres: CARBON Lab. This Research and Development and training center will be installed on a former industrial site at the entrance to Miramas. It will enable the creation of 200 jobs in addition to the 3,000 at the gigafactory in Fos-sur-Mer.
« Predicting the future means imagining sustainable, coherent projects that correspond to the energy challenges that arise. CARBON Lab responds perfectly by offering a unique training and R&D tool around solar energy. I am very proud of it for Istres and for the Metropolis », Reacted the mayor of Istres François Bernardini in a press release from the Metropolis and CARBON.
On the proposal of Martine Vassal, president of the Bouches-du-Rhône Departmental Council and the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, the Metropolis Council adopted, today, “a report relating to a construction lease with CARBON allowing the implementation of the Carbon Lab project on 13.9 hectares of land, located in the town of Istres, adjacent to the town of Miramas. It includes several industrial buildings, now disused, which will be rehabilitated. , which provides for at least 33 million euros excluding tax of investments by CARBON in several phases, benefits from the support of the State through the France 2030 program. Ultimately, CARBON Lab will create 200 jobs in mainland France, in addition to the 3000 of the giga-factory of Fos-sur-Mer”.
For the mayor of Miramas Frédéric Vigouroux: “ This establishment is good news for the region! The city of Miramas is working closely with the CARBON teams to welcome the Solar Campus and the CARBON center of innovation and excellence on the historic Areva site (ORANO) in the immediate vicinity of the Triage, a real industrial tool rail freight, passenger station and city center. »
“Make it the symbol of a successful reconversion of a former industrial site”
With this project, the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis also wishes to promote the reconversion of a former industrial site: “From 2027, this site will become “a true center of innovation and excellence supporting the activities of other CARBON sites”. The Istres site will host, for this purpose, CARBON’s research, development and innovation center, around production processes and photovoltaic products, as well as part of the company’s training activities. It will include technical platforms and operational production equipment to enable these activities. In a second phase, the site will host a Solar Campus, a true totem and emblematic place, a forum for meetings and exchanges, and a nerve center for the entire solar industry and beyond, as well as a documentation and training center with an international dimension, open to the educational and economic world”.
« We are proud of this new location in Istres, which demonstrates our attachment to the South and constitutes a new step forward for CARBON. We will make sure to make it the symbol of a successful reconversion of a former industrial site! We thank the State, the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis and the municipalities of Istres and Miramas for their unfailing support in this project. », declared Pierre-Emmanuel Martin, President and founder of CARBON
For her part, Martine Vassal, President of the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, believes that “ supporting the installation of the CARBON factory and its CARBON Lab R&D and training center means sustainably establishing, in the metropolitan area, a complete sector around solar energy, and contributing to its energy sovereignty. The Metropolis once again shows that it responds concretely and effectively to the needs of businesses, and strongly and sustainably anchors innovation and jobs in its territory that will benefit Metropolitan residents for many years to come. ! »
View of the CARBON implementation site in Istres © CARBON
