Q Energy, a subsidiary of Korean conglomerate the Hanwha Group, will begin construction on a floating solar project in north-eastern France this month, which will have a capacity of 74.3MW, making it the largest floating PV project in Europe by capacity.
The company was awarded a tender for the Les Ilots Bladin solar farm last year, and plans to commission the project in “early 2025”. The farm will be built on the site of a former quarry in the Haute-Marne department, and will use over 130,000 solar panels, while floating solar solutions provider Ciel & Terre will provide the floating structure.
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The company also announced that the capacity of the project has been expanded from its original plan, which aimed to deliver 66MW of solar capacity. Q Energy has already signed deals with firms including Ciel & Terre International, Solutions 30 Sud-Ouest and Perpetum Energy for the operation and maintenance (O&M) of the project.
“This milestone marks the culmination of four years of development, proof of our determination to support the transition to cleaner energy sources,” said Arnaud Goupil, Q Energy regional solar director. “It perfectly illustrates our purpose to empower a sustainable world with green energy. This floating power plant is the first in a long series, as our teams are currently developing a broad portfolio of nearly 300MW of projects of this type.”
As Goupil notes, the project will be Q Energy’s first step in developing a much larger floating solar portfolio in France. The company has shuffled many of its European projects in recent months, having agreed to co-develop a 300MW portfolio in the Netherlands last September, before selling a 78MW Spanish portfolio to an “internationally active investor” in June this year.
However, France has remained a country of interest for the company, which has plans to build 6GW of new renewable power capacity in France.
The news is a positive development for the floating solar sector, which has seen increased attention in recent years. Wood Mackenzie estimates that global floating solar capacity will surpass 6GW by 2031, although the group expects the distribution of new floating solar projects to be very uneven. The top ten countries by expected floating solar capacity by 2031 are all in Asia, and Wood Mackenzie forecasts all of them to have installed 500MW of floating solar capacity by this date.
“Les Ilots Bladin is a wonderful example of how water areas can make an important contribution to the energy transition,” said Jean-Francois Petit, Q Energy France managing director, speaking about the role of floating solar power in the European energy mix. “Q Energy is continuously focusing on new technologies to make further areas usable in harmony with nature and to supply Europe with green electricity.”
