SOLEIL SOLEIL SOLEIL ("Sun" in French) is a synchrotron facility near Paris, France. It performed its first acceleration of electrons on May 14, 2006. The name "SOLEIL" is a backronym for "Source optimisée de lumière d’énergie intermédiaire du LURE" (LURE optimised intermediary energy light source), LURE meaning "Laboratoire pour l'utilisation du rayonnement électromagnétique". The facility is run by a civil corporation held by the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), two French national research agencies. It is located in Saint-Aubin in the Essonne département, a south-western suburb of Paris, near
Soleil Center a spa and a 600-car parking garage. The total cost for the project was estimated to be $175 million and was a private investment project of the Soleil Group. The construction project was approved by the Raleigh City Council in November 2005, but after uneven bedrock conditions were discovered, test drilling of every column location was required causing a year-long delay. The original plan by developers was to build just a hotel, the Westin Hotel Crabtree, but no residences. After additional funding and investors were secured, the Soleil Group decided on building the larger project. The Soleil Center was to