ManaSolar inaugurated its first “agrivoltaic” farm this Tuesday in Mataiea, which promises to save the electricity network 2 million liters of diesel per year. The new renewable energy subsidiary will therefore encroach on the core business of its group: the sale of fuel. A transfer in the form of a “logical continuation” for Albert Moux who is continuing his diversification strategy, a month and a half after the launch of Managaz and 10 years after Vodafone.
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Between the laying of the first stone in February 2023, and the inauguration this Tuesday, there will have been some “technical complications” for the Moux group and its subsidiary ManaSolar. The softer soils than expected in the large area of PK48, on the sea side, meant that the 14,000 piles which support the 42,000 solar panels had to be planted deeper. And even pouring part of it into concrete. Certain electrical equipment ordered at the same time as the gigantic batteries, the inverters and the 100 km of cable deployed on the site, also had whims.
Result: 10 to 15% more costs on the overall project bill, revised to 2.4 billion francs. But what did it matter for Albert Moux, a month and a half after the launch of Managaz – which has already sold nearly 10,000 bottles – the main thing was to make this “other dream” come true: investing in his group, including the importation and the distribution of hydrocarbons remains the core activity in renewable energies.
A first power station and other projects
In front of a large audience of elected officials, entrepreneurs and other guests, the boss of the family group emphasizes the particularity of this “agrivoltaic” farm: the installed panels serve as greenhouses, shelters for fruit trees or shade houses for livestock. . A “first in Polynesia”, insists the manager, even if the Mahana O’hiupe power station, inaugurated by the Siu family and their partners a little over a month ago in Taravao, has already succeeded in this “double valorization of land”, with cattle breeding under solar panels.
No question of dwelling on the competition, Albert Moux lists his figures: this 10.7 Mw peak power plant – roughly the same power as Mahana O’hiupe – will produce the equivalent of the electricity consumption each year of 5,200 homes, and avoid the release into the atmosphere of 9,300 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. “That’s two million liters of diesel that must be saved each year”he insists. The boss of Pacific Energy and the Shell network knows something about this: it is his group that sells these millions of liters to EDT to supply the Punaruu power station. “It’s true that we are losing that, but we have developed solar farms, perhaps we will compensate with that. This is the meaning of the story, launches the boss of Pacific Energy and the Shell Polynesia network. It was the sense of the story that I created for the group, to replace fossil materials, ten years ago Vodafone, real estate, large boutiques (in New Caledonia, editor’s note)gas, and today solar.”
Suspense on the specifications of the “second tranche”
Manasolar and the Moux group do not want to stop there on the photovoltaic side. Responses are being prepared for Fijian calls for applications for power plants three to five times more powerful than that of Mataiea. The renewable subsidiary is above all ready to position itself in the race for the “second tranche” of Polynesian solar farms. The highly anticipated call for projects will be published in January, as announced this morning by Moetai Brotherson (who spoke a few weeks ago of a publication at the end of the year) before pressing the launch button of the Mataiea power plant.
On the specifications side, the debates remain on the table between the supporters of new large farms with batteries – Albert Moux, now experienced in the matter, is in favor and did not fail to notify the president – and the promoters of power plants lighter, even scattered on the roofs of large urban buildings, which would be supplemented by batteries directly placed on the network. Moetai Brotherson says no more at this stage, but says he has taken everyone’s comments into account:
