Gatinais I & II
Combining renewable energy and organic farming
With an output of 24 MW from 12 wind turbines, the Energie du Gâtinais facility was, when it became operational in 2015, the Ile-de-France region’s largest wind farm with 8 wind turbines on its territory, the 4 others being in the neighboring Centre-Val de Loire region. The plant produces over 60 GWh a year, i.e. the equivalent of the consumption of the Nemours catchment area.
Alongside it, Akuo has developed a permaculture project on 1,000 m² of the site’s land, via a set-aside agreement with two farmers, Mr. Leboeuf and Mr. Naudet. This land, made available to the farmers, is devoted to organic vegetable production and livestock farming.
Food retailer giant Carrefour is also involved, in keeping with a commitment to support responsible agriculture. This partnership guarantees the sale of produce from the farm in Carrefour Bio organic stores in the Ile-de-France region, thus allowing the development of a local supply chain using the permaculture farm.
The facility was expanded in 2021 with the 21 MW Gatinais II extension.
Expansion of the Gatinais I wind farm with Gatinais II
The Energie du Gatinais 2 project, named a winner in the third wave of Call for Tenders launched by the CRE (the French Energy Regulatory Commission), is located in the municipalities of Beaumont-du-Gâtinais and Gironville, in the Seine-et-Marne department southeast of Paris. The five Energie du Gatinais 2 wind turbines are an extension of the existing Energie du Gatinais plant, which has twelve 2 MW wind turbines, i.e. the Ile-de-France region’s largest wind farm with a total output of 45 MW.
It became operational in 2021.
The new Energie du Gatinais II facility has half as many towers as the Gatinais I facility, but these towers are 40% higher and have an installed output of 21 MW between them, the equivalent of the electricity supply of Nemours and Fontainebleau.
Our CSR commitment
Local consultation, the cornerstone of Energie du Gâtinais II
In addition to forming the largest wind farm in the Paris region, together with the Energie du Gâtinais plant, Energie du Gâtinais II was above all a great example of good local consultation allowing for optimal development of the farm. At every step in the project, the teams at Akuo engaged in dialog with local inhabitants, economic stakeholders, competent authorities, and elected representatives. Through this ongoing dialog, the farm was truly co-developed, especially with three public meetings organized at the end of 2017 at which the challenges facing Akuo’s development teams were presented to the population and the layout and configuration (number and height of towers) of the wind turbines were chosen in consultation, taking account of the requirements of each of the stakeholders.
Support measures selected together
The proposed support measures were discussed and decided on at a fourth workshop:
- Seventeen acres of land were therefore fallowed near the farm, in order to nurture local biodiversity;
- A cycle path was created in partnership with the municipality of Beaumont-du-Gâtinais; and
- Akuo contributed to reinforcing a road near the village in order to relieve the village center of farm vehicle traffic.
Crowdfunding
Finally, a crowdfunding campaign was run via our AkuoCoop platform. €1,700,000 were raised from some sixty investors and citizens who also make an active contribution to the energy transition of their region!