Akuo has inaugurated the O’MEGA 1 floating solar plant in Piolence, southern France, taking capacity to 22MW.
An inauguration event for the extension was held in the presence of Violaine Demaret, Prefect of the Vaucluse department, Louis Driey, Mayor of Piolenc and Nicolas Couderc, Akuo’s chief executive.
The O’MEGA 1 plant was inaugurated in October 2019.
The O’MEGA 1 Bis extension, comprising a new cluster with a capacity of 5MW, takes the site’s installed power from 17MW to 22MW.
The whole plant is located on a lake in a quarry.
As was the case with O’MEGA 1, Equans subsidiary Bouygues Energies & Services was in charge of constructing this extension.
Since coming online in July 2022, the extended plant has generated a total of 25,500GWh a year.
The event was also an opportunity to provide an update on the project’s agricultural component.
In conjunction with Piolenc’s municipal teams, six hectares of land has been made available to several farmers to enable them to plant experimental organic crops (thyme, rosemary, lavender, pistachios, yuzu and pomegranates), trees acting as windbreakers, a fence and a water pump have already been installed on the site to provide the future crops with a favourable environment.
The ecological monitoring of the O’MEGA 1 site’s fauna and flora by an independent consultancy firm began when the first floating structures were installed and will continue throughout the solar plant’s life cycle.
Its initial conclusions, published at end-2021 and end-2022, have highlighted positive impacts.
Making the site a sanctuary has transformed it into a calm and protected space for local fauna and has enabled vegetation to rapidly grow on the banks.
The reed beds provide a crucial habitat for fish and birds that frequent the lake, while the plant’s floating structure is used as a resting area by many birds.
A crowdfunding campaign for the plant was put in place in the fall of 2021, via AkuoCoop, Akuo Group’s crowdfunding platform, which is aimed at local residents and businesses wanting to participate in their region’s energy transition and economy.
Between O’MEGA 1 and its extension, a total of €1.185m has been invested in the plant in this way, reflecting local communities’ considerable engagement in this project.
Couderc said: “We are also proud to be able to work hand in hand with a municipal team that is as committed to the energy transition as it is to its regional development.
“The best proof of the success of this first project is that it has been possible to successfully replicate it: we are commissioning two more Akuo floating solar plants, one in the Occitanie Region and the other in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region.”
The O’MEGA1 power plant, a winner of the CRE4 call for tender in 2017, is the first Akuo project based on floating solar technology (Hydrelio by Ciel et Terre floating structure).