Europe’s largest solar park, to be built on 250 hectares of land near Bordeaux, France, will be powered in part by Yingli solar panels after an agreement was reached between project developer Neoen and the Chinese solar giant.
Located in the town of Cestas, the 300 MW photovoltaic solar facility will host up to 25 solar plants and produce over 350 gigawatt hours of renewable energy each year – the equivalent of the entire power consumption of the population of Bordeaux.
Neoen announced a consortium of local engineering and construction companies will immediately begin work on the €360 million project, which the company expects to be operational by October 2015.
“We are proud to have completed development of this unique project, thereby heralding a new era in the history of renewable energies in France. These power plants will constitute the largest and one of the most competitive photovoltaic solar parks in Europe, demonstrating the ability of this technology to play a leading role in the French and European energy mix,” said Xavier Barbaro, CEO of Neoen.
Under the agreement, Yingli Solar will supply 393,000 multicrystalline YGE 72 cell modules between December and mid-2015. Yingli solar panels will contribute 120 MW – or one third capacity – of what is set to become Europe’s biggest solar park.
Optimising production from the massive complex took lengthy planning. A high-voltage grid will deliver electricity from the Cestas park to residents, and all solar modules will be mounted in an east-west orientation to boost the system’s overall power density.
As a result, according to Yingli, the plant will provide electricity at 105 Euro per MWh, which is below the price of the United Kingdom’s new nuclear electricity.
“We are honoured to be part of this milestone project in the European PV market, and to be delivering a promising model that is driven by profitability and cost-competitiveness rather than dependence on public incentives,” said Liansheng Miao, Chairman and CEO, Yingli Green Energy.
In other recent news from Yingli, the company announced last week it will supply 72 megawatts of poly and monocrystalline solar panels to UK company SolarCentury. Delivery of the 168,000 solar panels will occur by the end of this year. The projects the panels are used in will generate approximately 65,000 MWh of solar electricity annually, enough to supply around 21,800 average UK homes.
