Marseille, SER National Photovoltaic Conference, JULY 6, 2022 – The French Federation of Agrivoltaic Producers (FFPA) enthusiastically welcomes EDF Renewables among its members. The membership request made by the Group's subsidiary, a major player in photovoltaic energy in France, to the FFPA was validated on June 13 unanimously by the Board of Directors of the association, based in Hontanx in the Landes.
To meet the challenges of energy transition, the State has positioned solar energy among the major solutions and EDF Renewables wishes to take part in its ambitions through its Solar Plan. Finding available space for electricity production facilities is a challenge that developers have to take on. It is in this context that EDF Renewables is joining the FFPA with a shared ambition to position agrivoltaism in the current debate on agricultural, food, ecological and energy transitions, by giving priority to agricultural land and maintaining the agricultural status of land. This is to guarantee the long-term development of coactivity of agricultural production and renewable electricity on the same land.
The common objective of the two actors is to promote the way in which our members implement their projects and the associated synergies according to a rigorous state of the art: broad participation and consultation processes, environmental and technical impact studies, studies and agricultural conventions, unsubsidized economic models.
In the debate on the consumption of natural, agricultural and forestry spaces, agrivoltaism represents an innovative solution to control the artificialization of soils in the long term: it does not change their agricultural use, does not waterproof them and presents a solution alternative to urban development or the creation of activity zones observed in the peripheral rings of certain urban areas.
In this context, fully reversible photovoltaic panels represent new tools for agriculture, with the possibility of being tailor-made to the projects that are developed. The agrivoltaic model defended by the FFPA is also a fantastic opportunity to put an end to the downgrading of farmers, to allow them to find an innovative place in the socio-economic system and to regain visibility to finally make future generations want to continue the family farms.
Ahead of the SER National Photovoltaic Conference, Alexandre Bardet, President of the FFPA, declared: “Membership of our federation of EDF Renewables, a historic player in the development, construction and operation of renewable energy installations in France and abroad, represents an important recognition of our approach in favor of a collective and qualitative agrivoltaism. The FFPA's charter of commitment promotes a virtuous and harmonious agrivoltaic model on a very long-term trajectory allowing the diversification and security of agricultural production and the creation of a viable and sustainable united ecosystem, in line with the expectations of citizen consumers and the development objectives of the territories themselves are challenged to transform. ".
Bruno Bensasson, Chairman and CEO of EDF Renewables and Executive Director of the EDF group in charge of the renewable energies division, added: “Committed to carrying out sustainable energy projects in line with the challenges of the territory, we are happy to join the FFPA whose development philosophy is aligned with that of our company: placing the agricultural project at the heart of our agrivoltaic projects, allowing a co -sustainable activity and working in partnership with local stakeholders. Agrivoltaism is a challenge for the future, at the heart of the choices that territories must make to reconcile all energies and accelerate towards carbon neutrality, to innovate and protect themselves from the effects of climate change. We hope for the insertion of the FFPA into the institutional agricultural and solar ecosystem to support the deployment of this promising sector. ".
About the FFPA
The French Federation of Agrivoltaic Producers is an initiative of 10 farmer associations carrying out agrivoltaic projects. Since its creation on December 3, 2021, the FFPA has been convinced that agrivoltaism is above all an approach of farmers who are committed to an ecological, energy, agricultural and food transition. It is by defending this vision and carrying the voice of these women and men that the federation has convinced numerous actors to join it, among whom we can count 200 farmers, EDF Energies Renouvelables, the Regional Chamber of Agriculture of Nouvelle Aquitaine as well as numerous elected officials.
Other operators, energy companies and developers in the sector have already demonstrated their desire to join the FFPA to support farmers in carrying out their projects and to promote the development of agrivoltaism in France. All the members of the FFPA will meet next December at the federation meetings to look back on the past year and define the actions for the year to come.
Find all the latest news from the FFPA on its website https://www.ffpa.fr