- Volkswagen Group France (VGF), a unit of German automaker Volkswagen, has commissioned a PV plant on a carport at its headquarters in Villers-Cotterêts, in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France.
The project consists of two 10 MW arrays covering a 15-hectare carpark. Xavier Chardon, chairman of the executive board of VGF, noted that the “solar cover of [the]parking area is fully in line with [its]GotoZero strategy to reduce its carbon footprint.”
Engie Green, the renewable energy unit of French energy group Engie, developed and financed the €20 million ($21.8 million) installation. It will operate and maintain the plant for 32 years.
The French Ministry of Ecological Transition selected the project through a tender process conducted between 2020 and 2021. The project also gets support through crowdfunding from local communities.
This carport marks Engie Green’s thirteenth facility of its kind in France, converting parking lots into green electricity production sites across 200 hectares. As of Jan. 1, 2023, Engie Green was running 2.4 GW of wind farms and 1.7 GW of solar projects in France
Author: Gwénaëlle Deboutte
This article was originally published in pv magazine and is republished with permission.
