Electricity produced locally, at a competitive price and intended for its residents, communities and businesses. Friday, November 22, more than forty people, local, departmental, regional elected officials, residents of the Community of Communes of Landes d'Armagnac and others, gathered at the Saint-Justin municipal center to talk about Néela. Presented as “a first in France”, this collective self-consumption project from solar powered by the Community of Communes of Landes d'Armagnac (CCLA) brings together 27 municipalities for 11,500 inhabitants.
Concretely, by 2028-2030, on land belonging to public entities, five solar power plants will be installed for an investment of 89 million euros. The total surface area covered by the panels will be approximately 120 hectares, spread over the municipalities of Cachen, Saint-Justin, Vielle-Soubiran, Herré, Saint-Gor and Baudignan. On this aspect, Philippe Latry, president of the CCLA, wanted to be reassuring: “Our territory is made up of 97% natural, agricultural and forest areas. This project occupies 0.2% of the CCLA’s forest territory. » For this project, the community of municipalities relies on several public and private partners: Enerlandes, Terra Energies, Incidences and TotalEnergies Renouvelables.
Additional electricity
As soon as the power plants are commissioned, individuals will be able to subscribe to an offer of “local electricity at a competitive and guaranteed long-term rate”, underlines David Augeix, former employee of EDF Renewables and president and co-founder of Incidences. If the stakeholders in the project mentioned an annual production equivalent to the consumption of around 26,000 homes, they also recalled that this energy produced is not intended to replace, but rather to supplement the offer. This for the simple reason that “the solar panel only produces electricity during the day, the person does not change electricity supplier. This local electricity is simply added,” explains David Augeix.
Economic benefits
If the local production of energy at a competitive and guaranteed rate over time constitutes a strong argument, the CCLA puts forward another advantage: “All financial benefits (tax, rent) will be distributed between the Department, the Community of Communes of Landes d'Armagnac and the communes. The objective is to ensure that this financial windfall comes to irrigate and support the projects of all the municipalities of the CCLA,” underlines Philippe Latry. 53% of land rents will be donated to the municipalities hosting the projects and the remaining 47% will return to the community.
After more than forty-five minutes of presentation, it was time for questions. Some residents wanted clarification on the steps to take to subscribe to an offer while others questioned stakeholders on the fate of used solar panels. On this point, it was Jean-Emeric Lemasson, director of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine TotalEnergies Renouvelables France agency, who was responsible for responding, while admitting that he was not a “recycling specialist”: “We are lucky to have a solar panel reprocessing center in New Aquitaine. The majority of panels received pass through machines. The latter are capable of analyzing the panels that are still usable and which will supply other markets. For recycling, solar panels are made up of several elements. Glass, copper and aluminum are reused. »
