Projects of major national interest are those that reduce France’s dependence in strategic sectors or contribute to national industrial objectives. This new status, provided for in the “Green Industry” law, enables the projects concerned to benefit from various types of exemption and to be prioritized for administrative instructions, in order to facilitate and accelerate their establishment on French territory. France’s ambition is to accelerate the deployment of solar energy, as recently announced by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Economic Recovery. The granting of this status confirms the government’s recognition of the strategic nature of CARBON’s project. In the photovoltaic industry, this is Europe’s largest project, with an investment of 1.7 billion euros. The gigafactory at Fos-sur-Mer, on Marseille’s Grand Port Maritime, will be the largest of its kind in Europe, with a capacity of 5 GWp per year and full integration of all production stages (ingots, wafers, cells, modules). It aims to reduce Europe’s dependence on imports of photovoltaic panels produced outside Europe.
Economic and strategic impact
The CARBON project will produce over 10 million photovoltaic panels a year in France, meeting a significant proportion of domestic electricity needs. In addition, it will create 3,000 direct, sustainable jobs and at least 9,000 indirect jobs for the regional and national ecosystem. This project also strengthens France’s position as European leader in the photovoltaic industry, by developing a complete industrial ecosystem in Europe, from upstream to downstream.
Benefits of PINM status
Achieving this status is excellent news for the project’s strategic timetable, which calls for work to start in mid-2025, with commissioning scheduled for the end of 2026. Pierre-Emmanuel MARTIN, Chairman and founder of CARBON, commented: “This status confirms the strategic nature of our gigafactory project at Fos-sur-Mer. It will enable us to keep to our construction and commissioning schedule, which we are delighted about.”
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