French floating solar power plant »Les Ilots Blandin« enlarged to 74 MW

Berlin-headquartered pan-European renewable energy project developer Q Energy will begin construction of the floating solar power plant »Les Ilots Blandin« in Perthes (Haute-Marne department) in northwest France this month. Announced in September 2021 by RES Group (now Q Energy France), the FPV (floating photovoltaics) project on water surfaces of a disused quarry belonging to the company Blandin Granulats was originally planned at 66 megawatts (MW). »Thanks to an improved design,« it has been scaled up to 74.3 MW, making it the largest FPV plant in Europe to date, according to Q Energy.
For the plant, with its nearly 135,000 solar modules, six artificial islands will be created from floats and anchored to the shores or bottom of the flooded pits. The planned construction period is unusually long at 18 months.
Q Energy France has a pipeline of FPV projects with 300 MW. The total renewable energy project pipeline in France is six gigawatts (GW). Across Europe, Q Energy is pursuing projects with 15 GW.
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