Engie and Neoen are working together to build the 1GW Horizeo solar farm in France, which will also include battery storage and supply a green hydrogen production unit and a data centre.
Horizeo, which will be located on 1000 hectares at Saucats in the Gironde region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, will generate power without any subsidies, the partners said.
They added that the project aims to demonstrate that solar energy is mature, reliable and sufficiently competitive to ensure the direct supply of electricity to industrial companies.
Engie deputy chief executive in charge of renewables Gwenaelle Avice-Huet said: “The Horizeo project is unprecedented and innovative in its capacity to produce renewable energy and it goes much further by combining, on a single site, technologies of the future.
“It is also an ambitious project in its economic model, in which the energy produced will be valued through contracts for the sale of electricity by mutual agreement with companies, outside the tender procedures of the State and associated grants.
“This is a real break with the current economic model of renewable energies in France.
“We are also committed to carrying out an exemplary project in terms of environmental and societal approach.
“The upcoming public debate will allow us, in particular, to enrich and feed all the components of the project.”
Neoen deputy chief executive Paul-Francois Croisille said: “Horizeo is a large-scale project which intends to demonstrate that it is possible to accelerate the energy transition in France by directly offering competitive renewable energy to companies.
“This project is designed as a true low-carbon energy platform combining mature solar energy with ambitious technological innovations, such as electricity storage batteries.
“Our priority is to integrate this project into the realities of the territory from an ecological, societal and economic point of view.
“In keeping with the unprecedented scale of the project, the public debate will allow all local actors and the general public to be involved as widely as possible to develop all its potential for the benefit of the territory.”