Local decarbonizing energy: Veolia transforms its landfills into solar power plants, providing 300 MW of renewable energy in France

Veolia is accelerating its rollout of local decarbonizing energy by installing solar panels on its restored landfills in France. This initiative is part of the Group's ongoing ambition to make its  services energy self-sufficient in France.

Veolia plans to launch the development of over 40 solar projects on its selected non-hazardous restored landfills, for an overall installed capacity of 300 MW of renewable energy. Photovoltaic panels will cover a surface area of around 400 hectares which will provide enough energy for the consumption of 130,000 inhabitants. The first plants will be operational by 2027.

Veolia is pursuing feasibility assessments for solar power plants on its hazardous waste landfill sites, as well as on the sites it manages on behalf of its industrial clients. In all, over 400 MW of renewable energy could be installed across France.

This solar energy program is being carried out amid a significant land shortage, which remains a major challenge for the expansion of solar projects in France. With the growing demand for clean, renewable energy, the need to locate and secure suitable land for solar farms is becoming ever more pressing. This limited availability of sites, combined with the complexity of permitting process, creates major obstacles. This issue underlines the need for public and private players to work together to ensure the rapid and effective deployment of solar energy in France.

"This initiative is fully in line with our strategy of developing local decarbonizing energy. For several months, we have been screening all our sites in order to use every appropriate space to maximize energy production. From now on, our landfills, most of which already produce biogas or biomethane, will also be able to produce photovoltaic energy," explains Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO of Veolia. "We're aiming for more than 40 projects within the next 3 to 4 years, but we could go faster with the removal of administrative hurdles and the simplification of procedures. Faced with the challenges of energy sovereignty and decarbonization, these delays need to be cut in half."

ABOUT VEOLIA

Veolia Group aims to become the benchmark company for ecological transformation. Present on five continents with nearly 213,000 employees, the Group designs and deploys useful, practical solutions for the management of water, waste and energy that are contributing to a radical turnaround of the current situation. Through its three complementary activities, Veolia helps to develop access to resources, to preserve available resources and to renew them. In 2022, the Veolia group provided 111 million inhabitants with drinking water and 97 million with sanitation, produced nearly 44 million megawatt hours and recovered 61 million tonnes of waste. Veolia Environnement (Paris Euronext: VIE) achieved consolidated revenue of 42.885 billion euros in 2022. www.veolia.com