On Wednesday 17 October, ENGIE and GreenYellow, a subsidiary of Casino, formalised the creation of Reservoir Sun in the presence of Sébastien Lecornu, French Secretary of State for the Ministry of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Isabelle Kocher, Chief Executive Officer of ENGIE, and Jean-Charles Naouri, President of the Casino Group. The purpose of this company is to accelerate the development of solar photovoltaic self-consumption in France for businesses and authorities.
Reservoir Sun was created, with the approval of the European competition regulation authorities and labour relations organisations, to develop solar photovoltaic self-consumption in France. A structure entirely dedicated to this activity and held in equal shares by ENGIE and GreenYellow, Reservoir Sun will specialise in the segment for solar power plants up to 1 MWc, for businesses and authorities. Objective: 100 MWc per year, or nearly 300 accounts comprising 300 kWc, on average, per project.
This new actor will use the surfaces provided by roofs and car parks to produce local, green energy. 100 million euros will thus be invested annually in the market for medium-capacity facilities. This is the first time for an actor to commit this many resources to companies and authorities in favour of solar self-consumption.
“The Casino Group was the first distributor to invest in developing solar photovoltaic energy. This association with ENGIE is a real booster and shows just how visionary our intrapreneurial project launched ten years ago, called GreenYellow, really was,” says Jean-Charles Naouri, President of the Casino Group.
For Isabelle Kocher, Chief Executive Officer of ENGIE, “the creation of Reservoir Sun is an excellent illustration of our commitment to provide support to all businesses and communities in the energy transition. This project also confirms the new dynamics of development of short energy supply chains, in which the ENGIE group has firmly positioned itself.”
The association of two leading stakeholders in the solar photovoltaic sector
ENGIE, the leading producer of solar electricity in France with 1,200 MW of installed capacity, also provides daily support to 45,000 companies, authorities and joint property associations in their energy transition through its Businesses & Authorities entity. In addition to the supply of energy, which for nearly 15 years has included green electricity offers, ENGIE B&A offers its customers a range of offers and services that are environmentally friendly and guarantee a better control of their budget, notably turnkey photovoltaic facilities.
GreenYellow, the leader in self-consumption for the mass retail sector in France, has developed recognised expertise in the photovoltaic market with over 190 MW of facilities developed, constructed and in operation, and more than 1000,000 m² of photovoltaic panels installed. The company is also an expert in the domain of energy efficiency: with more than 1,500 energy performance contracts (EPCs) worldwide, it has forged a solid understanding of the issues of energy optimisation, a determining prerequisite for creating solar self-consumption solutions.
GreenYellow is the leading solar actor in the French self-consumption segment, as demonstrated by the latest results of the calls to tender of France’s Energy Regulation Commission (CRE).
Reservoir Sun’s headquarters are located in Marseille. To give the company a strong local presence and allow it to be as close as possible to its customers, 7 further branches will be opened in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Valence, Montpellier, Avignon, Lyon and Paris. Some 30 employees from GreenYellow, from ENGIE Businesses & Authorities and recruited from external sources will work on the development of this ambitious new actor.
Reservoir Sun will draw on a mixed, innovative team, expert in developing projects for the production of decentralised solar energy and in managing the issues of its future customers, in particular in the public tertiary sector, industry, health, trade and distribution.
