Neoen has been awarded just under 82MW of solar in the two most recent call for tenders for ground-mounted photovoltaic farms held by the French government.
The developer has won 73.6MW in the latest CRE 4.9 round, split between five projects, from 3MW to 39MW, following an 8MW win in the CRE Innovation tender in late 2020, totalling 81.6MW.
The 39MW Loirecopark in the Sarthe department, located on land belonging to a consortium of local authorities, will be one of Neoen’s largest in France.
The solar park will help restore former military land and will begin operations in late 2022.
The four other winning projects are located in Haute-Vienne, Ain and Calvados.
The commissioning of the assets will take place between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
Three of these projects are ground-mounted solar parks, like Loirecopark, and will also be rehabilitating degraded land, a priority for Neoen.
The fourth project, which will be open to crowd investment, is a solar car-park shelter.
Two other projects won the CRE Innovation tender in December, for a total of 8MW.
An “innovative” predictive maintenance system will be used for both ground-mounted plants, with automatic detection and assessment of faults of the solar panels.
The first 5MW project, in Portets, south-west France will be located on the site of a former quarry while the other, 3MW, at Saint-Priest-la-Prugne, Loire, will rehabilitate the site of a former uranium mine.
Neoen has won 364.6MWp of solar in the last nine CRE tenders, which represents a total investment of over €300m.
Almost two-thirds of the capacity awarded will be produced on degraded land or carpark shelters and 183MW is already in operation or under construction.