To develop bold energy transition projects, benefitting from the support and, better still, the help of the people affected by these changes, is a major asset. The association Energie Partagée has fully grasped this and made it the focal point of a promising strategy.

Energie Partagée is counting on people’s involvement

Energie Partagée supports and oversees projects initiated by local actors: regional authorities, socially responsible companies, cooperatives or individuals. Its work involves developing and financing socially responsible initiatives, the goal of which is to generate renewable energy. To do this, it has equipped itself with a structure dedicated to projects promotion and a citizens’ investment fund to finance them. A vision shared by the Rexel Foundation which provides its expertise to the financial mechanism and promotional activities essential for the projects’ success.

Lucisol installs solar panels on the roofs of a factory in Apt (France)

One of the key projects, to the credit of Energie Partagée, involved supporting the installation, in 2015, of a photovoltaic facility on the roofs of a factory specialised in creating sterile environments, located in Apt, Luberon, France. The socially responsible company Lucisol, for “LUberon CItoyen SOLaire”, which brings together 150 inhabitants of Pays d’Apt, initiated the project. To do this, it also received support from ALTE (Local Energy Transition Agency in Apt), the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region, ADEME (Agency for Ecological Transition) and Communauté de Communes Pays d’Apt-Luberon. The facility includes 760 solar panels over 1,400 m² with an annual production of 250 MWh, electricity that is then fed back into the local power grid. Such production can provide the equivalent of one fifth of Apt’s public lighting needs. As a result, 32 tons of CO2 equivalent are saved. Lucisol is working on 2 other projects in Apt and Cavaillon and continues to seek assistance from individuals to finance these operations.

An initiative that is spreading

Similarly, with the ongoing support of the Rexel Foundation, Energie Partagée wishes to develop MAIF (Mutuelle assurance des instituteurs de France) infrastructures, such as its roofs or even car parks, to turn them into supports for solar panels. Here too, individuals are called on to invest alongside other local actors. The primary objective is to generate renewable energy and thus contribute to protecting the environment. Yet the initiative endeavours to be even more ambitious as it strives to promote the company’s patrimony, reintroduce it into its local ecosystem, raise employee awareness about the energy issue and encourage socially responsible investment. It should then be possible to roll out the project for other companies. Rexel is also considering the possibility of rolling it out on other sites, the same way the Group did with its Cestas distribution center (Bordeaux area, France) whose rooftop is equipped with photovoltaic panels that supply 20% of its electricity consumption.