The Labarde solar power plant is under construction in Bordeaux and will be completed at the end of 2021 -

JPee

  • JP Energie Environnement is assembling 140,000 photovoltaic panels on this site, which will provide the equivalent of the electricity consumption excluding heating for 70,000 inhabitants.

  • The power station is located on the former landfill of the metropolis, which represents a very strong constraint for the assembly of the panels.

  • It should be fully operational by the end of 2021.

Its designers ensure that it is "the largest urban solar power plant in Europe".

With its 140,000 photovoltaic panels installed on a 60 hectare site located just in front of the Matmut Atlantique stadium, on the edge of the Garonne, the Labarde solar power station in Bordeaux is indeed eye-catching.

Located opposite the matmut Atlantique stadium, the Labarde solar power plant is made up of 140,000 photovoltaic panels.

- JPee

But the feat is not even there.

Its particularity is to be located on an old landfill.

Because here was between the years 1970 and 1984, the landfill of the 27 municipalities of the Bordeaux metropolis.

Household waste, business waste and sewage treatment plant sludge were stored there.

Then the metropolis closed the cover above the 2 to 3 million m3 of waste, rehabilitating the site between 2004 and 2009, and making it waterproof to prevent water infiltration.

Nobody, then, thought of building anything on top of it.

A network of tracks to circulate heavy goods vehicles

It was the company JPee (JP Energie Environnement), which had the idea of ​​installing a solar power plant there.

By highlighting the main advantage of photovoltaic panels, namely that they are removable equipment.

“It's a huge Lego that can be taken apart in the event of a problem” summarizes Sylvain Vasseur, director of the JPee solar activity.

However, the project, undertaken in 2015, took a long time to set up, due to site constraints.

In particular, it was necessary to establish a whole network of tracks on the landfill, to circulate the heavy goods vehicles transporting the concrete and the equipment, without altering the watertightness of the site.

It was first necessary to create a network of tracks on the former Labarde landfill, to transport the materials for the solar power plant - JPee

“It was also necessary to make shallow foundations, continues Sylvain Vasseur, and we could not bury the cables in the mass of waste, so we had to pass them overhead.

Finally, we had to propose structures capable of adapting, of adjusting themselves according to any settling of the soil.

"In the end," it's a great opportunity to promote these sites on which we can't do much else;

we cannot come with agricultural activities or with heavy constructions.

"

"An important role in the electricity supply of the agglomeration"

Started in 2019, the site is about halfway through to date.

"Half of the plant will be commissioned at the start of 2021, and the second unit in the fall of 2021", announces Sylvain Vasseur.

With a capacity of 59 MW, the plant will produce 75 GWh / year, which is the equivalent of the domestic electricity consumption excluding heating of 70,000 inhabitants (28% of the Bordeaux population).

The Labarde power station “will therefore have an important role in supplying electricity to the agglomeration”.

The president of JPee, Jean-Louis Nass, ensures for his part that it will prevent the release of 3,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Planet

Agrivoltaism, or when solar panels are used for crops

Planet

Pays-de-la-Loire: The largest photovoltaic park in the region (and its 20,000 panels) in service

  • Planet

  • Solar

  • Aquitaine

  • Bordeaux

  • energy

  • Photovoltaic