Kyocera Corporation announced that is has supplied 8,500 solar modules for a new 2-megawatt (MW) solar power plant which sits over four acres of unused farmland in north-western France. The plant was officially inaugurated on October 21 in Distre, in the French department of Maine-et-Loire. The large-scale installation is a flagship project in terms of sustainability, and the Kyocera solar modules produce an average total power output of 2,200,000-kW/hours per year of environmentally-friendly electricity — equal to the average annual energy consumption of 900 local households. Furthermore, the clean-energy power plant will off-set roughly 700-tons of CO2 per year.
The solar installation is the largest solar power plant in north-western France, and is a pioneer project for future model systems. The renewable energy plant was established as a sustainable solution for the reclamation of unused land, as the space can now be used to make a positive contribution to the environment via clean energy generation. The project was realized with an investment by the French company Quenea Energies Renouvelables — a medium-sized enterprise specializing in the field of renewable energy — and the state-run financial institution Caisse des Depets et Consignations.