CNES asks Voltalia to build a photovoltaic park on the Kourou space base in French Guyana

Voltalia release

Voltalia (Euronext Paris, ISIN code: FR0011995588), an international player in renewable energies, and CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales), the landowner of the Guiana Space Centre, have announced the launch of a photovoltaic power plant project.

Voltalia has won the tender launched by the French space agency CNES to build a 5-hectare photovoltaic park with a capacity of 4.2 megawatts at the Kourou space base.

CNES is financing the construction of the plant, which will cost €5 million and benefit from the French Recovery Plan. The solar power plant is expected to be operational by June 2023.

The project is part of a larger green program of the Kourou space base, which will eventually include two photovoltaic farms and two biomass plants to supply green electricity and cooling for the Guiana Space Center (CSG). The CSG's goal is to be 90% powered by renewable energy by 2030. These projects will enable it to make only marginal of the Guiana EDF network, which currently consumes about 15% of annual electricity production. In total, these investments will reduce CSG's electricity bill by 25%.

The CSG energy transition plan also includes the renovation and construction of more efficient buildings, as well as the greening of propellants used by launchers.

“The Guiana Space Center is demonstrating its strong commitment to the energy transition, to optimizing its consumption and to pursuing an ambitious low-carbon path. We are very proud to support the CSG and to contribute our know-how and skills to the construction of this forward-looking photovoltaic plant,” said Sébastien Clerc, CEO of Voltalia.