Relief on the Polytechnique campus in Saclay, Essonne. While the project worried students and alumni, TotalEnergies finally gave up setting up its new Research and Development center near the prestigious engineering school. In a press release issued this Friday, the group explains this decision due to a “significant delay” in the construction of the building, which was to be devoted to new energies and electricity.
“Under these conditions, TotalEnergies has decided to set up shop this year, as planned, on the Saclay plateau in premises intended to house business innovation centers in order to establish its R&D New Energies & Electricity”, the statement said. Same sector, therefore, but within the confines of Polytechnique.
The oil company Total initially planned to house part of its premises right in the middle of the X campus, in Saclay, with a 10,000 square meter building located in place of the parking lot. A total of 400 people were expected there to work on the “energy decarbonization”.
“Private interference”
This idea had been contested by some of the students and teachers of the prestigious school, who had demonstrated in March 2020 against “private interference”. This decision “calls into question the independence of the school on which its public service mission is based, by allowing private interests to interfere permanently and irreversibly”, explained a student to Release in January 2020.
In June 2020, after the mobilization of students and professors, the engineering school decided to move the future research center out of the heart of the campus to install it right next door, on the future business park of innovation supported by the Paris-Saclay Public Development Establishment (EPA). But construction work on the building at the new location, which was due to start in July 2021, has been delayed. “New energies don’t wait. And the transformation of TotalEnergies – which accelerated in 2021 – cannot wait either”, says the group in its press release.
The direction of the X regrets this decision
The Ecole polytechnique reacted in a separate press release, saying that it took note and regretted the decision taken by TotalEnergies even if it does not call into question the partnerships with the company. “nor the school’s commitments in the field of energy transition”. TotalEnergies maintains its scientific partnership with the Institut polytechnique de Paris and in particular with the departments dedicated to energy, artificial intelligence and data science.
The double role of Patrick Pouyanné, CEO of TotalEnergies and member of the board of directors of Polytechnique, also earned him an investigation by the financial prosecutor’s office, opened in May 2021, on the R&D center project. A complaint had been filed by three NGOs, accusing Pouyanné of having maintained the confusion between his mandate as administrator of the school and that of CEO of the oil group during the debates on the establishment of this research center in the heart of the campus.