CVE acquires two French PV plants

CVE has acquired a plant in Lourches, Northern France, as well as one located near the communes of Marigny and Gaye, in La Marne, France. These are ground-mounted plants which will produce 17 GWh and 34 GWh per, respectively, or the equivalent consumption of 11 000 households.

The audits were carried out in-house by CVE’s own teams during the acquisition process, without any outside consultants. These acquisitions are a perfect example of CVE’s ability to pursue its external growth strategy in an increasingly competitive, demanding environment. The Group’s external growth operations are helping it achieve its goal of having an installed power capacity of 2.3 GWp by 2025. At the same time, CVE is pursuing the development of its own PV, biogas, and hydro plants in order to finance, build, and operate them in the long term.

Indeed, the construction of these two power plants gives a new industrial life to a former coking facility in Lourches and a never-used NATO airfield in Marigny. Out of the 200 total hectares of Marigny’s former airfield, about 50 will be devoted to the construction of the solar plant. For the remaining land, CENCA (a local environmental conservation group) will take measures to protect threatened species over the next 30 years. This partnership developed by Solarcentury shows how projects like these can fit perfectly with environmental protection and enhancement.

The community will also have a big stake in these projects through crowdfunding. For the Lourches project, which won the second phase of the Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE)’s call for tenders, CVE will crowdfund circa €800 000 from citizens of Northern France; allowing the community to shape the energy transition and directly benefit from its economic impacts through a fundraising effort that will begin in November and end on 31 December 2020.

Read the article online at: https://www.energyglobal.com/solar/18112020/cve-acquires-two-french-pv-plants/