14 MWp on a former municipal landfill: enough electricity for more than 4,500 households in Wallonia, with sheep grazing the healthy areas of the site.

Overview

Transforming a former landfill site into a solar project and valorization of unusable land.

The former Fontilloi landfill is a 33-hectare site hidden along the N4 between Belgrade and Suarlée. It was a sand quarry in 1970, then served as the landfill for the whole Namur region until the late 1990s. Today it is one of the largest landfills in Wallonia, holding 500,000 m³ of inert and household waste — the equivalent of 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Part of the site is still being backfilled with inert waste.

The site has been under rehabilitation by SPAQuE, the Walloon agency responsible for degraded land, since 2003, and Tradecowall is in charge of the final backfill using site soil. Remediation will continue for many years, which is precisely what makes the site suitable for a solar plant: 30,000 panels on 19 of its hectares. Meuse Agri Energie, the special-purpose vehicle set up by etherra for this project, filed the permit application to convert the site into a solar field.

Challenge

The project consists of 4 zones forming a fenced-in whole, visually isolated by vegetation. Each zone will benefit from the photovoltaic technology best suited to its constraints.

Fontilloi zones 1, 2A, 2B and 4 have already been authorized. An application to extend the project was submitted to the local council in August 2024 to include zone 5, an extraction area backfilled by Tradecowall and on which an agrivoltaic project will be set up.

Zones 1 & 2 are former landfill sites. They contain a pumping station for polluted water, a biogas collection network and a flare for soil remediation. Given the contamination, it is not possible to associate an agricultural project with this site. In collaboration with SPAQuE, the landfill will be covered with ground-mounted solar panels, taking into account the existing constraints: polluted soil, membrane covering the waste, safety distance perimeter, etc.

Zone 3 is a control zone on which SPAQuE has installed piezometers and where no solar panels will be installed.

Solution

Meuse Agri Energie has chosen SunBuild to design, build and maintain this multi-technology PV plant for the next 25 years.