TSE on the way to becoming one of France's leading solar and agrivoltaic companies

Bertrand Drouot L'Hermine, you build solar power plants. What solutions do you offer and who are they aimed at?

It takes almost five years to develop and build a solar power plant, from locating suitable land to connecting it to the grid, preparing the building permit application and seeking finance. Today, TSE has two main areas of development: solar power plants on low grade, unproductive land and agrivoltaics. We're currently working on a lot of agricultural projects, including canopies, crop shading and livestock rearing. We also have a Convergence division that deals with multi-energy projects on industrial sites. With the company Lhyfe, we are going to deploy solar energy and hydrogen production on the former Fonderies du Poitou site.

What are your most significant achievements?

We have built around 500 megawatts of solar power generation and we are currently working on a portfolio of projects with a capacity of just over 2 gigawatts. Among our most significant projects is a power station due to be connected in 2021 at Marville in the Meuse region, on a former NATO air base. This power station features many innovations, particularly in terms of biodiversity, and represents the quintessence of what can be done on wasteland. In the field of agrivoltaics, we recently inaugurated two canopies, at Brouchy in the Somme and Amance in the Haute-Saône. These two systems enable solar energy to be produced over crops of all types, including wheat, maize, barley and soya.

Agrivoltaics, a growing sector

What benefits do farmers derive from the installation of your solar power plants?

Our solutions are designed to provide a service to agriculture. At Brouchy and Amance, for example, they provide protection against the vagaries of the weather. When hail falls, we place the panels horizontally and they cover almost 45% of the field below, providing real protection. The canopy effect also helps to lower temperatures during major heat peaks. Thanks to a system of trackers, which rotates the panels to follow the path of the sun, our panels create shade that limits evapotranspiration and therefore water consumption. Water consumption is one of the major challenges facing the world of agriculture in the coming years.

You have developed a photovoltaic canopy for arable farming. What are the characteristics of this agricultural canopy?

We wanted a system that could be deployed on a massive scale on crops in France, without changing farming practices, so almost all farm machinery had to be able to pass underneath it, but also be managed on a crop rotation basis. We therefore worked on how to optimise crop yields according to the crops that the farmer is used to growing. The canopy is a fairly simple system with posts and cables to support the panels. In one direction, we have a spacing of 27 metres between the posts, which will be the farmer's working axis, and a low point of 5 metres. This makes it possible to grow large-scale crops, rotating crops once or twice a year, which also makes it easier to maintain the system.

At Brouchy, this canopy is combined with an intelligent irrigation system. Does this represent a solution for the future in these times of drought?

It's a world first to have a system that can be deployed on field crops which also includes an irrigation component. This is a major innovation, because water management will be a critical issue for agriculture in the coming years. Fitted with sensors, our systems provide perfect information about each sub-section of the plot in terms of hydrometry and plant growth. It is therefore possible to irrigate the plot very finely, in small blocks rather than uniformly, and also at times when evaporation is minimal, which greatly limits water loss.

300 million funding

To accelerate TSE's development, you have raised €130m in 2023. Was it easy to find financial partners?

Even before this round of fundraising, we had already raised and secured slightly more than this amount in financing. In the end, TSE will have raised €300 million. It wasn't easy at a time of rising interest rates, which are affecting the world of financing. However, we managed to put together the most impressive round of financing that anyone in our industry could dream of. In fact, we brought three players into our capital: Eurazeo, one of France's finest institutional investment funds; Crédit Agricole, the leading financier of the agricultural sector, and Caisse des Dépôts, the leading financier of local authorities.

It's a sign of confidence in your future. What are your medium-term development prospects?

It's a huge sign of confidence that validates everything we've achieved so far. At TSE, we have in fact existed in relative secrecy for five years, so that we could build up a very substantial portfolio of projects before becoming a target. At the same time, we worked on innovations that we are now bringing to market. We emerged fully a year ago to become a leading player in the agrivoltaics sector. The funds we have raised give us the means to implement our ambitious roadmap. In terms of staff, we've doubled our workforce every year for the past three years and now have 250 employees. With many of our portfolio projects reaching maturity, we plan to recruit a further hundred or so people over the next eighteen months. We are already a major player in agrivoltaics, but our ambition is to become the leader fairly quickly.

Solar power to meet rising energy demands

In the years to come, demand for electricity is set to rise considerably, and solar power is emerging as one of the energy sources best placed to meet the challenge. Is the solar industry up to the challenge?

Today, the development of solar projects is a business for small, agile players at the heart of local communities, with a real capacity for innovation. In recent years, the sector has undergone a huge consolidation, with many companies being bought up by EDF or Total. In fact, we need six to eight credible, high-quality players in the deployment and operational management of solar projects. We will clearly be one of them. There are a few who have built up their businesses in niche markets and are gradually trying to broaden their range. We need these players to emerge.

TSE's head office is based in Sophia Antipolis. Does this bring you any specific projects in our region?

We have a project under development in Valbonne. It involves regenerating the former Trou de Béget landfill site. Even though it's a small project, we really had to take it on because it's symbolic and it's in the commune where our head office is located. As for the rest, the development of solar power in the Alpes-Maritimes remains fairly marginal, because the land at stake is extremely sensitive. Today, TSE's deployment is totally national, but we're proud to be able to share the benefits of our development and the value it creates with the Alpes-Maritimes.