An Energy-Neutral Urban Cable Car Takes Flight in Réunion
- Published on 23/10/2025 11:00
- Modified on 23/10/2025 11:00
Saint-Denis of La Réunion will host ZÈL La Montagne by 2028, a 100% energy-neutral cable car.
La Réunion is preparing to write a new chapter in the history of sustainable mobility. The ZÈL La Montagne project, led by a consortium headed by MND alongside SBTPC OGEA Réunion (VINCI Construction Outre-Mer), SYSTRA, SODIPARC, and their partners, has won the public contract from CINOR for the design, construction, and operation of the world’s first 100% energy-neutral urban cable car.
True technological showcase, ZÈL La Montagne will rely on a next-generation Smart Grid, combining kinetic energy recovery during descents and solar power generation via photovoltaic panels covering stations and buildings. Result: complete energy autonomy and zero carbon footprint over the year, including for auxiliary infrastructures.
The project is part of a deeply territorial and participatory approach. Designed with local stakeholders, it combines technical performance with exemplary landscape integration: pylons inspired by the banyan tree and the paille-en-queue, minimalist and biodiversity-friendly design, tropical comfort aerial cabins.
Its Creole name, “ZÈL,” meaning wings, perfectly illustrates the project’s ambition: to give wings back to La Montagne, connect the city to its heights, and symbolize free-flowing, seamless mobility.
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With this pioneering initiative, La Réunion affirms itself as a global laboratory for clean mobility, demonstrating that innovation, ecology, and aesthetics can coexist. An exemplary project proving that, more than 9,000 km from Paris, the energy transition is already being invented… and reaching new heights.
This page is translated from the original post "Un téléphérique urbain neutre en énergie s’envole à La Réunion" in French.
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