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Sofretes – the Société française d’études thermiques and d’énergie solaire (French research company in solar and thermal energy) – a mixed economy corporation specialized in thermodynamic solar pumping, was founded in October 1973 after a decade of experimentation in France and Senegal by French engineer Jean-Pierre Girardier. The company became a leader in its field and the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) had ownership of the controlling interest, but it disappeared after just ten years in business. This article examines this unique adventure from the perspective of the anthropology of energy and the history of thermodynamic solar power in Africa, whose first projects and experiences date back to the 1860s-1920s, before the renewal embodied by physics professors Henri Masson in Senegal and Abdou Moumouni Dioffo in Niger.