Curbans
The plant, located in the municipality of Curbans, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the southern French Alps, was built on land defaced by years of exploitation as a material-extraction quarry.
Developed since 2010 by the Akuo teams, this 15 MWp solar plant became operational in 2020.
A virtuous project on many levels
A positive energy commune
Located next to the river Durance, in an exceptional setting that is characteristic of the southern Alps, the Curbans plant has given a renewed strategic appeal to land too degraded to support other activities, and notably farming. It provides locally generated renewable electricity to 5,000 homes, helping to make Curbans a positive energy municipality!
Structure trackers
Another feature is that the plant is equipped with trackers that rotate to follow the sun’s journey across the sky. This innovative technology, which has been well-proven by Akuo over recent years, has a major advantage in that it enables more electricity to be produced that with a traditional fixed structure, and therefore requires less land to produce the same amount of power.
Akuocoop
Lastly, Akuo wanted a portion of this project to be financed, via the AkuoCoop platform, by crowdfunding, enabling inhabitants and businesses in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department to play a leading role in their region’s energy autonomy and thus give real meaning to their savings.
