France will convert its two coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 1.8GW to biomass by 2027, French president Emmanuel Macron said in a televised interview on 24 September.<\/p>\n
Macron said the government would increase its annual spending for the green transition to \u20ac40bn ($42.5bn) in 2024, from \u20ac33bn this year. A portion of this funding will support the conversion of France's last two coal-fired plants into biomass.<\/p>\n
\"We are going to invest massively, and indeed in all sectors. The first thing is to exit coal \u2014 it is key,\" Macron said in an interview on TF1 and France 2 TV channels on 24 September. France will convert its two remaining coal-fired plants \u2014 the 1.2GW Cordemais and 600MW Emile Hutchet plant in Saint Avold \u2014 to biomass by 2027, he said.<\/p>\n
The French government last month passed a decree allowing coal-fired plants to operate until the end of 2024, in order \"to ensure security of power supply in the current exceptional situation\". But after Macron's comments on 24 September, it has to clarify whether the units will continue to burn coal or co-fire with biomass from 2024-27 as conversion works are carried out.<\/p>\n
The conversion will bolster France's industrial biomass consumption, probably making it a top consumer in northwest Europe. France burned 480,000t of industrial wood pellets last year, according to preliminary data by industry association Bioenergy Europe, primarily for district heating. Its residential pellets consumption was 2.6mn t.<\/p>\n
Macron's announcement follows the European Parliament's formal adaptation of the EU's revised renewable energy directive (RED III), which reaffirmed biomass' role as a renewable energy source as Europe phases out fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
The French environment ministry launched a call for the expression of interest for projects transforming coal-fired plants into biomass sites in February 2022.<\/p>\n
A project to convert utility EdF-operated Cordemais to biomass \u2014 named Ecocombust \u2014 was relaunched in January 2022. Ecocombust was proposed in 2015 but abandoned in July 2021. A representative from French union CGT told Argus <\/em>in January 2022 that Cordemais could start co-firing biomass in as soon as 2023, on EdF's expectations that it would have been \"economically viable to have a fifth of wood pellets [in the fuel mix] from winter 2023-24\". But no further announcements came after the French government recalled coal-fired units back to the grid to manage last year's energy crisis.<\/p>\n Cordemais' 580MW unit 4 was recommissioned in November 2021 following a request by the national grid operator to return to cover winter supply. EPH subsidiary GazelEnergie's Emile Hutchet plant was recommissioned at the same time. The latter was previously scheduled to shut down at the end of March 2022.<\/p>\n The French government announced in March 2022 increased support to incentivise businesses and residential users to consume biomass and other renewables instead of fossil fuels.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" France will convert its two coal-fired power plants with a combined capacity of 1.8GW to biomass by 2027, French president Emmanuel Macron said in a televised interview on 24 September. Macron said the government would increase its annual spending for … Continue reading