The presence of photovoltaic panels on the site of the Billy-Berclau Gigafactory was an obvious choice, apparent as soon as the first architectural views were revealed in 2020. The 336-space parking lot was the ideal location for this gigantic installation, with its shaded roofs.

Technically, there are now 2,966 modules spread over eight shaded areas, giving a total of 5,786 m2 of photovoltaic panels in operation for a few days, with an installed power of 1,186 kW peak (kWp). By way of comparison, a 9 kWp solar installation is required for a 100 m2 house. This installed power should enable the production of around 1,245 MWh (the Gravelines nuclear power plant produces 22,500 times more each year) for 3,700 hours of operation each year.

A 100 m2 house with average insulation consumes around 18.3 MWh every year. The electricity generated by the Gigafactory's photovoltaic panels is equivalent to covering the annual consumption of 68 equivalent homes.

These shades cover all the parking spaces (not the traffic lanes), i.e. 45% of the total surface area of the 12,805 m2 parking lot.

What happens to the electricity generated by this plant? “ It's for self-consumption. Every electron produced is injected into the Gigafactory grid and consumed on site,” explains Sébastien Morenilla, sustainable and renewable energy referent at ACC. Nothing is fed back into the external power grid.

The electricity generated on site directly powers the entire plant. Electric vehicle charging stations installed on site can be powered by this locally-generated energy. The Gigafactory's east parking lot has 64 7 kW charging points and ten 50 kW charging points, for a total of 158 charging points.

The future development of electricity production using photovoltaic panels at Billy-Berclau is under study. The possibility of installing a power plant on the roof of the second block, currently under construction, is being studied.