French company becomes GW-scale floating solar player

France-based company Ciel & Terre has exceeded 1.5GWp of floating solar projects in its pipeline, claiming the world-record for the company with the most floating solar plants constructed in the world.

Since the installation of the very first MW-scale project in 2013 in Japan, Ciel & Terre has designed, anchored and built floating solar plants in dozens of countries around the globe.

The company’s track record has reached more than 280 projects installed worldwide representing around 820MWp energy production.

No other company around the world has built as many floating solar plants, the company claims.

Including projects currently being designed or under construction, there is more than 1.5GWp in the total pipeline of the French floating solar company.

Currently, two large-scale floating solar projects are being constructed by Ciel & Terre in Taiwan and India.

The first one is the continuation of the initial Changbin project, located in Taiwan. The power target is about 192MWp, installed offshore.

As for the first step of the project, one of the main challenges for this extension is to manage the salty water effects on metallic parts with a very careful selection of materials with an anti-corrosion screw set solution.

Another challenge is the waves and tides which are quite demanding for the anchoring in a cyclonic zone, for which the company created an innovative anchoring system that distributes the anchoring loads according to the tide level.

The second, located in Central India, is currently being installed on a huge cascading reservoir and will reach 120MWp.

The site is actually quite challenging in terms of environmental loads considering the wave height, the water depth, the nature of the rocky lake bed, which are very specific to such type of application on dams.

Ciel & Terre’s scope goes from the design of the floating solar power plant and its anchoring to the installation. This is the second project of Ciel & Terre India for which the floats are produced by its own factory specifically installed near to the site to limit transportation costs and carbon emissions.

Several other projects exceeding 50MWp are also in progress in various countries. As a GW-scale energy player, Ciel & Terre aims to deliver a cumulative 2GW of floating solar projects by 2026.

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