UK-based firm RES will begin construction and eventual operation of Pv (photovoltaic) solar parks producing around 40Mw, beginning in the year 2021 in the Alpes de Haute-Provence. The power generated will be sold to SNCF a French railway operator. The 15-year power purchase agreement will help reduce the French operator’s consumption of non-renewable energy.
SNCF, a French railway operator, has agreed to a 20-year endorsement that is expected to have the operator be provided with solar power for 2% of its total electrical consumption. The operator signed a 25 year green corporate PPA (power purchase agreement) in 2019 that states that it would purchase solar power worth 143 MW from a fellow French corporation that develops renewables, Voltalia. In a statement the company released in 2019, they said that they would be planning to “sign six to seven times the volume of that deal over the next two or three years.”
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Comments from the Heads.
The Chairman and chief executive of SNCF Voyageurs, Christophe Fanichet, said the company’s clean energy PPAs were “part of the desire of the entire SNCF group and railway workers to offer ever more sustainable mobility thanks to trains that were cleaner. We are proud to contribute with this contract to the creation of additional photovoltaic solar capacity in France, which will benefit the transition of the French energy mix. The RES CEO, Sébastien Dubois said his company “is proud to make a lasting commitment to the energy transition alongside SNCF Energie, by allowing the construction of new solar capacities outside the tenders held by the French Commission de Régulation de l’Energie.” He added: “This agreement once again demonstrates the attractiveness and competitiveness of solar energy in France. The signing of this PPA agreement is an additional step in the pursuit of our vision of a future where everyone has access to low-carbon and affordable energy. The signing with SNCF Energie is a first for RES in France and, we hope, the start of a long series to come.”
