Engie Green has won a French Government tender for three projects in the Pays-de-la-Loire region.
With a total capacity of 12.6MWp, the three ground-based solar power plants will be located on approximately 15 hectares of land belonging to Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port, in the immediate vicinity of the Montoir-de-Bretagne LNG terminal.
They are expected to become operational in the first half of 2022 and will should generate the annual equivalent energy consumption of 7,700 people.
One of these projects, with a capacity of 5 MWp, incorporates a technological innovation that won the government’s “innovative solar” tender.
It is a system for daily forecasting of solar irradiation and power generation of the plant by learning based on neural networks.
This system will be produced and hosted on the servers of the Reuniwatt company, a specialist in the observation of clouds and solar radiation.
These forecasts will be established, firstly, on the basis of data provided by an autonomous weather station located for two years on the photovoltaic site, then through the learning of neural networks.
This system based on short-term prediction will then contribute to the stability of the French electricity network, a major issue linked to the development of decentralised electricity production sites.
The construction phase is scheduled for autumn 2021 at a cost of around €10m by ENGIE Green.
In the Pays-de-la-Loire region, Engie Green has five solar power plants and nearly 68MW of wind farms.