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The Matignicourt floating solar project in France’s Marne region has entered construction. Developed by Neoen, the project has a total installed capacity of 35 MWp, of which 28 MWp will come from a floating solar plant on a former quarry lake that is no longer in use.
Neoen is working with an EPC consortium in which Equans is the main contractor and Ciel & Terre the floating plant contractor. Ciel & Terre is responsible for designing the floating plant and its anchoring system, placing the anchors, assembling the floats and PV modules and positioning the floating islands on the lake.
A hub for large floating solar in France
The project is located in the same area as the 72 MWp Les Îlots Blandin, currently Europe’s largest floating solar plant. Using water surfaces left by former industrial activity makes it possible to generate renewable electricity without creating a new land footprint.
Designed around environmental constraints
The plant was designed with the site’s environmental constraints in mind from the outset. One of the main challenges was maximising installed capacity while maintaining a set distance between the banks and the floating islands; the position and size of the islands were optimised accordingly. The anchoring system was also designed specifically for the site: anchors are placed along a defined contour line on the reservoir bed while sufficient flexibility is kept in the mooring lines.
Construction is starting within a narrow time window. Anchoring work must be completed before 31 October, after which a sensitive period begins for certain animal species on the site and driving the percussion anchors used in the project is not allowed. This phase will be followed by assembly of the floating structures, installation of the panels and step-by-step placement of the islands on four separate reservoirs.
Vincent Pinchou, EMEA Project Manager at Ciel & Terre, said environmental constraints directly shaped both the design and the organisation of the site, that the team had very little time for anchoring and that it planned each phase in advance and adapted resources accordingly.
Four reservoirs, simultaneous worksites
Spreading the plant across four separate reservoirs requires a dedicated organisation of workflows, teams and installation schedules. As Ciel & Terre is delivering another project in France over the same period, production, procurement, human resources and logistics are being coordinated across several worksites.
Founded in 2006 and focused on floating solar since 2011, Ciel & Terre has delivered more than 1.4 GWp of installed capacity across over 350 projects, according to company data.
Sources
- Ciel & Terre, “Floating solar: 35 MWp Matignicourt project enters construction phase”, press release, 28.09.2026 – ciel-et-terre.net
Image: Ciel & Terre
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