SNCF plans to multiply solar farms on some of its brownfield land along railway lines to generate renewable energy on unused land, its boss said Thursday.
“We have land, we can do something smart“, said Jean-Pierre Farandou, CEO of SNCF, who opened the solar power plant in the former marshalling yard of Le Mans. “We want to expand these types of solar farms to other locations“, he explained to AFP. “We have many industrial brownfields or abandoned railways that are perfectly suited to the installation of solar farms“, he added: “There is considerable potential.The public group owns 30,000 hectares of wasteland, according to its subsidiary SNCF Immobilier.
The Le Mans-Arnage solar farm, located on the edge of a railway line overgrown with weeds, includes 572 solar panels spread across 17 hectares. SNCF tenant Arkolia Energies has produced 11,400 MWh of electricity there since last summer, which its promoters say is equivalent to the consumption of 4,500 households. The amount may seem small compared to the 9 TWh (9 million MWh) of electricity that SNCF consumes each year, but “you have to start somewhereemphasized Jean-Pierre Farandou. The electricity produced at Le Mans is also fed back into the national grid and is not used directly by the railway company. “What matters is that we are injecting electrons into the systemcommented Michael Lemarchand, Director of Social, Territorial and Environmental Commitments at the Public Group.
“This is done in full cooperation with local authorities. We also see their desire to be more autonomous in terms of energy productionadded Jean-Pierre Farandou, who advocates more generally for greater sovereignty over energy supply. The agglomeration of Le Mans, for example, currently consumes 4,600 GWh per year, including 450 GWh from renewable energy. By 2030, the goal is to reduce consumption to 4,000 GWh, including 1,200 renewables, said Mayor (PS) Stéphane Le Faull. Two other similar solar power plants are in the pipeline, in Ardennes and Sarthes. Still on the SNCF site, Gares & Connexion has launched a call for interest to equip station car parks with solar panels. The result is expected this summer.
Source: Le Figaro
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.