Environmental impact assessment for the Carbon Giga-factory project

Prior to the construction of the Carbon Giga-Factory, which will produce 10 million photovoltaic panels per year, SOCOTEC Environment experts intervened to assess all the environmental impacts of the project and define measures to control the risks.

Key Informations :

Date: 2023-2024

Client: Carbon

Size: 45 hectares

Location: Fos-sur-Mer, in Bouches-du-Rhône region (France)

Photo credit: Groupe 6 Architecture

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Céline PIGNOT

Head of Business Development, Industrial Risks and Classified Facilities

hse@socotec.com

Project Details

Carbon is a French startup founded in 2022 and supported by a consortium of entrepreneurs, industrialists and solar energy experts. Its purpose is to try to respond to the urgency of the energy transition and national and European sovereignty in this area, through the local production and marketing of reliable, competitively priced, durable, high-efficiency and very low-carbon photovoltaic panels.

Carbon has thus launched a project to build a 45-hectare giga-factory located at Fos-sur-Mer in the Bouches-du-Rhône region (France), at the heart of the Industrial and Port Zone. Its annual production capacity is set at 5GW, which represents about 25 km² of photovoltaic cells per year.

It will be the first of a set of giga-factories installed in France and Europe, and incorporating recyclability and circularity issues (for both flows and raw materials) from the design phase. Carbon's ambition is to reach a Made in Europe production representing a capacity of 30 GWc per year by 2030.

Description of the assigned missions

Given Carbon's philosophy, this construction project must be exemplary in minimizing its environmental impacts and controlling the risks associated with the process. Thus, the company has called upon the expertise of SOCOTEC Environment from the earliest phases of the project to carry out an in-depth environmental impact assessment. This approach aims to ensure the compliance of the project with all the regulatory environmental requirements by demonstrating its commitment during the public consultations.

Preparation of the Environmental Authorization Application for the project

Facilitation of workshops to present the impact assessments and risk studies.
Question and Answer sessions with citizens on the environmental impacts of the project and the measures taken to avoid, reduce or offset them.

Evaluation of the impacts of the land clearing and artificialisation of the site on the existing plant and animal species.
Recommendation of ERCA (Avoid, Reduce, Compensate, Accompany) measures: sanctuarized areas, off-site compensation, protected species, etc.

Evaluation of the water consumption of the factory during operation
Development of measures to reduce water consumption, avoid discharges as much as possible, optimize water recycling, etc.

Identification and inventory of hazardous products present on the site during operation.
Hazard study, modeling of impacts in case of dangerous phenomena.
Definition of a safety system to control the risks.

SOCOTEC Environment was also able to assist CARBON in carrying out the public safety and security study (ESSP) as part of the Building Permit application process.

SOCOTEC Environment also carried out a baseline report on contaminated sites and soils, including soil investigations and the installation of piezometers, as well as the IEM (environmental status interpretation) component.