3 Questions to André Joffre, Founder of Sol Solidaire
TF - What issues does Sol Solidaire address?
AJ - The challenge with SOL SOLIDAIRE is to combine social and environmental progress. The association is pursuing several objectives, the first of which is to fight against energy insecurity, which affects 7 million households in France.
The aim is to combat this scourge by using photovoltaics, and thus to contribute to the energy transition, to the energy performance of buildings, as well as to the development of an innovative French solar industry and the creation of local jobs.
TF - How does Sol Solidaire concretely address these issues?
AJ - The aim is to reduce the electricity bill of residents of social housing by helping to finance the installation of solar panels on the roofs or parking lots of low-income housing.
SOL SOLIDAIRE mobilizes donations from patrons and distributes them to social landlords who commit to deploying collective self-consumption PV installations and to providing their tenants with the solar electricity thus produced free of charge.
With a direct and concrete impact:
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Amount needed to equip a household with two children with solar energy: about 500 euros (real cost after tax reduction)
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Amount needed to equip a 100-unit low-income housing complex: about 50,000 euros
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Savings for a beneficiary family: about 200 euros per year for 30 years (i.e. 6,000 euros)
A sponsor who donates €20,000 generates €200 in savings for 100 households over 30 years.
12 applications were submitted in 2020, for projects all over France, especially in the Hauts-de-France and Grand-Est regions (where the sun is in the hearts...) as well as in Reunion Island.
Depending on the project, between 50 and 242 homes are involved. The total represents nearly 1,800 homes, which is almost twice as many as what we expected for this first edition. This reflects the success of the approach and the high expectations of social housing stakeholders.
On average, the candidates commit to making 20% savings on their tenants' bills.
Depending on the case, solar energy is either a solution for the energy renovation of existing buildings (for example, rehabilitation of mining estates), or a solution integrated into a new construction project (for example, within a block of a new development zone).
TF - What would be the ideal development scenario for Sol Solidaire?
AJ - For its first edition, the association will have raised about 150,000 euros - enough to support at least one file per candidate and about 500 housing units (of varying sizes).
Our patrons and partners who have confirmed or pledged their donations: ARaymond, ENEDIS, AMARENCO, GSE Intégration, BRED, Sonnedix.
In addition, TECSOL employees have made a gesture on their salaries, as well as a certain number of individuals through a crowdfunding campaign conducted on HelloAsso in the last quarter of 2020.
We need to mobilize more patrons!
In the long term, we hope to free up the potential of collective self-consumption, a concept that is currently blocked by a dissuasive energy tax system.
Those 3 questions were written following the Transition Forum Call for Expressions of Interest. Sol Solidaire is part of the top 20 selected projects.
