Dossier - Photovoltaic power plants, new floating islands: Small photovoltaic power plant, big savings; In Germany, Ouarzwerke consumes its own solar energy; Recovering degraded land: A former Inert waste storage facility becomes a photovoltaic power plant; Live from the worksite: From gravel pit to floating solar farm, the new life of a Blandin site; Corporate Power Purchase Agreement, self-consumption and agrivoltaics: The extractive industry has never been so promising for renewable energy projects

The Climate Energy Law passed in 2019 and setting the goal of carbon neutrality in 2050 has provided for the development of renewable energies (RE) so that they cover a third of our consumption by 2030. In 2023, however, RE accounted for just 22% of gross final energy consumption in France, according to figures from the French Ministry of Ecological Transition. In March 2023, the law on the acceleration of renewable energy production simplified project authorization procedures by halving their appraisal time in order to secure them against appeals. While recent inflation has forced some producers to abandon projects that have become too costly, subscription rates for the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE)'s Multi-year energy plan 2 call for tenders have risen again in 2023. This acceleration raises the question of the available surface area for these installations, in this case photovoltaic. This is one of the reasons for the surge in floating projects in recent years, a real potential contribution to the energy transition that is still under-exploited. Quarries that have reached the end of their life cycle, and which are at the origin of the creation of artificial bodies of water, are a response to the shortage of land that is beginning to be felt at a time when the targets for the development of renewable energies in France are not being met. With their available land, whether at the end of its useful life, not yet exploited or being used for a parallel activity, quarry operators will not only be able to enhance the value of their land, but also to help achieve the objectives set by law, without competing with other uses, particularly agricultural. In this issue, we analyze the quarry-related developments of BayWa r.e., TotalEnergies Renouvelables and Q Energy companies, and review the various business models that enable quarry operators to reap the financial and reputational benefits