Storm‑Damaged Solar Farm Doubles Output

Repowering Ychoux 2 doubled its power output in under a year

Photosol rebuilt the storm‑ravaged Ychoux 2 plant in France’s Landes region and, by swapping to higher‑capacity solar modules and new mounting structures, doubled the facility’s installed capacity without expanding its 1,600‑hectare footprint. The rapid work limited production losses and met all environmental and regulatory rules.

Faster rebuild limited financial losses

Shortly after Storm Domingos, Photom Services secured the site, and Photosol Mobexi dismantled the broken gear. Re‑usable modules were salvaged, while the rest were sent to French recycler Soren. The whole repowering was finished “relatively quickly,” according to construction manager Arthur Van Belleghem, helping to preserve the plant’s revenue stream.

Power density now twice as high

Because the physical area stayed the same, the plant now generates twice as much electricity per hectare. With the three‑plant complex slated for a combined 77 MW and an estimated 97 GWh a year, each megawatt produces roughly 1.26 GWh annually – a clear illustration of how modern, higher‑output modules can squeeze more energy out of the same land.

Repowering is becoming a new asset‑management norm

Photosol calls this its first large‑scale repowering, but the company expects similar projects to grow as PV assets age and extreme weather events become more frequent. Upgrading existing farms avoids the need for fresh land‑use permits and cuts the carbon cost of manufacturing new panels.

What it means for Israel

Israel’s solar market can learn from Ychoux 2’s approach. A typical residential system costs about ₪3,150 per kWp and yields roughly 1,700 kWh per kWp per year in the central region. Using the French plant’s 1.26 GWh / MW figure as a benchmark, a 1 MW Israeli rooftop would generate about 1.7 GWh per year, slightly more than Ychoux 2’s average. At the residential feed‑in tariff of ₪0.48 /kWh, that translates to roughly ₪816,000 of annual revenue per MW. Compared with the installation cost of ≈₪3.15 million per MW, the simple pay‑back period is just under 4 years, well within the 25‑year system lifetime. Repowering existing Israeli farms with higher‑power modules could therefore shrink pay‑back times and help meet the renewable‑energy target of 30 % by 2030.

Outlook: more farms will be repowered, not rebuilt

As climate‑driven storms increase, operators worldwide are likely to follow Photosol’s playbook: upgrade, don’t expand. The approach preserves valuable land, cuts waste, and accelerates the transition to higher‑efficiency solar technologies such as bifacial or tandem cells. For Israel, where land is scarce and solar tariffs are generous, repowering could become a cornerstone of meeting the 2030 renewable‑energy goal.

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