The installation of solar panels along the railways and highways operated by Vinci could produce the equivalent of five nuclear power plants for around 5 billion euros, estimated Wednesday the president of Vinci Autoroutes Pierre Coppey in front of senators.
We have done work (with) the SNCF to assess (…) 5,000 hectares of available land, i.e. 4,000 hectares along the railway lines and 1,000 hectares on the Vinci Autoroutes network, he said. explained to the Senate’s regional planning commission.
Basically, on one hectare we can make one mga(watt), so that on these 5,000 hectares we can make 5 giga(watts), which means that by quickly mobilizing the existing land along the infrastructures, we could roughly equivalent to five photovoltaic nuclear power plants, he calculated.
This represents around 5 billion euros of investment and we are ready for it (…) both administratively, technically and financially, indicated Mr. Coppey, specifying: We have made proposals to the state.
He called on the authorities to simplify the administrative procedures allowing the installation of voltaic panels along motorways or railway lines.
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Vinci Autoroutes operates 4,443 km of motorways, including the Autoroutes du Sud de la France, Cofiroute (towards the Atlantic coast) and Escota (in the Provence-Alpes-Cte d’Azur region).
The SNCF did not react immediately to these remarks. The public group is committed to a policy of installing solar panels on the roofs and car parks of stations and workshops, or on railway wasteland.