Interview with Alain Legal, mayor of Faux since 2008, community of 610 inhabitants, local council community for the southern Périgord region, in Dordogne.
After having visited a solar power plant in 2012 in the Gers region, the elected officials of Faux decided to install a photovoltaic power plant on a site in escheat, which had formerly been the site of a race track and a shooting range. “Son of a farmer, farmer myself, and a now retired banker, I am very aware of the current evolution of humanity and if everyone, on their own level, like us, does something to reverse the trends, we will have in some small way done what had to be done to not leave a trash pile for our children and grandchildren. I believe that we are no longer at a point of being ecofriendly or not, the challenge is global and there is universal agreement on that. When we see the water resource problems that will arrive with climate change, it gives one serious pause. Ahead of the creation of this photovoltaic power plant, we had already considered our energy use and followed it up with actions, for example, turning off part of the street lighting during the night. We will be replacing all lighting with LEDs. The fact that the site was abandoned and degraded contributed greatly to the project’s acceptance by the population. We have only had positive feedback. We handed a depolluted site to Urbasolar who took charge of the terracing, clearing, and of course the construction of the photovoltaic plant. In all sincerity, everything went very well. From the beginning to the end, at every exchange, Urbasolar acted with high quality professionalism. They are rigorous in their processes, responsible, and friendly. It’s not without reason that they are among the main actors in photovoltaics and a leader in their field. We must continue the development of renewable energy and there is currently sufficient technical progress to resolve the problem of production intermittence.”