2023-07-06 09:53:49
SNCF announced Thursday that it plans to install 1,000 hectares of photovoltaic panels by 2030 to cover the equivalent of 15 to 20% of its current electricity needs, which would make the public company one of major producers of solar energy in France.
The country’s leading industrial consumer of electricity with its TGVs and other trains, the SNCF hopes to deploy solar panels with a power of 1,000 megawatts-peak (MWp, unit measuring maximum power), with panels notably installed on its buildings and car parks by a new subsidiary, SNCF Renouvelables.
It would compete with energy producers like Engie or Neoen, although being behind, these companies planning to develop solar very strongly in the next decade. The SNCF plans to directly supply the electrical equipment of many stations and industrial buildings. Electricity will also be used to power some of its trains, more than 80% of which currently run on electricity.
“The symbol of a paradigm shift”
The financial gains generated by SNCF Renouvelables “will also make it possible to support the work programs necessary for the maintenance and modernization of the railway infrastructures”, specifies the SNCF in a press release.
It is “the symbol of a paradigm shift where renewable energies, now profitable, generate economic opportunities for those who produce them”, commented Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Energy Transition.
Operations should start in 2023 on around thirty sites of various sizes (ground-mounted power plants, building roofs and car park shades) spread over several regions. The company, second landowner behind the State, is already installing signs in the car parks of around a hundred small stations, and in large stations such as Nîmes-Pont du Gard, Valence, Avignon and soon Angers and Paris-Nord.
It undertook to “purchase in Europe, whenever possible, the components necessary for the establishment of its photovoltaic projects”. A second phase of development is already planned: longitudinal and vertical solar panels might be installed in segments of 20 to 30 kilometers along unused tracks (regarding 7,000 km), said the SNCF. Ultimately, a maximum capacity of 10,000 hectares of land might be exploited.
1688641143
#SNCF #produce #large #volumes #solar #electricity #run #TGVs
