3 questions to Donald François, President and Founder of SerenySun Energies
©criscuolo
TF - What issues does SerenySun Energies address and why are these issues important?
DF - Within the framework of the energy transition, the decentralization of the energy model is a major challenge that must allow territories to take this responsibility back. It is becoming necessary to increase the share of renewable energies in the global consumption of electricity and to promote short energy circuits, an ecological and economic solution to produce green energy as close as possible to where we live, and therefore where we consume. Our approach therefore meets the challenges of decarbonization of our cities and allows us to control our electricity bills but also to reduce the amount of energy consumed. It is also urgent to raise awareness and to act for energy sobriety to encourage the reduction of greenhouse gases at the local level.
Moreover, all stakeholders in society (individuals, companies, local authorities, associations, etc.) are now aspiring to contribute to the energy transition, but do not know how to act concretely.
These different actors show a growing motivation to understand the global and local stakes, to be actors of this transition (and no longer undergo it), to engage in local projects (short circuits), to act collectively and to show their spirit of solidarity (regarding disadvantaged people and territories). But not all actors in society have the skills, the solutions or the financial means to get involved...
Finally, locally produced green energy is a real source of wealth for the territories (on the economic, employment and social levels....) that is essential to develop.
TF - How does SerenySun Energies concretely respond to these issues?
DF - Convinced of the need to promote a less centralized energy model, I founded SerenySun Energies to facilitate local initiatives and promote the territorial anchoring of renewable energy production.
As a catalyzer for the energy transition, SerenySun Energies favors short energy circuits for the benefit of the actors of a same territory. We offer a complementary alternative to nuclear power. To do this, we design, in addition to centralized systems, renewable energy projects at the local level that reconcile all environmental, economic, and societal issues.
With our Local Renewable Energy Community concept, based on the economy of functionality and cooperation, we offer everyone access to green and local energy without having to invest. The members of these communities can thus consume energy produced nearby, regardless of their status (landowner or not) and their means. This societal dimension is one of the core values of our approach, which aims to be inclusive, because the energy transition must be everyone's business.
In concrete terms, SerenySun Energies offers an innovative energy model tailored to the needs of territories, combining different models of local renewable energy development (individual self-consumption, collective self-consumption, resale at regulated rates).
The idea is to produce local green energy by promoting installations in already anthropized territories (public or private), without impacting biodiversity and as close as possible to living areas. We federate mixed populations of a same territory (municipalities, companies, citizens) in a common renewable energy project with the ambition to cover 30 to 50% of the electricity needs of the collective.
Our credo: Produce locally to consume locally!
TF - What would be the ideal scenario for the development and diffusion of your project?
DF - At the creation of SerenySun Energies in 2018, I bet on the development of a Proof-of-Concept on the commune of Cabriès-Calas (13), the first community of this type and this size in France. A pilot project, conducted in partnership with the municipality of Cabriès-Calas and with the support of the Southern Region, which allows us to capitalize on this experience today, to industrialize the development process, to finalize the technological platform and to test new products and energy services with value tomorrow. This community, whose delevery is planned for the summer of 2021, will generate 1,000 MWh/year thanks to the installation of 4 solar power plants (on 2 school groups, sports facilities and a private multi-purpose hall) and will supply electricity to the schools, the private hall and citizens.
We hope that this first project will be an example to follow for the creation of many other local renewable energy communities at the initiative of local authorities or inter-municipalities, but also of companies committed to the ecological transition, public developers or citizens, at a European scale.
As a trusted third party for energy transition issues, we plan to develop more than 20 Local Renewable Energy Communities by 2025 for a total solar power of more than 40 MW, which represents about 50 M€ of investment, about twenty local authorities and more than 5,000 self-consumers within our communities.
Acting here and now to accelerate the energy transition is our fundamental purpose.
Those 3 questions were written following the Transition Forum Call for Expressions of Interest. SerenySun Energies is part of the top 20 selected projects.
