The Minister for Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, has announced a new call for applications for industrial pellet production projects. This process, which was once at the heart of the Ecocombust project at the Cordemais power station, was abandoned in July 2021 by EDF.
The news signifies the reactivation of the Ecocombust project at the Cordemais power plant. On 16 February, Barbara Pompili, Minister for Ecological Transition, announced the launch of a call for expressions of interest for industrial pellet production projects. She added that the latter will consist of up to 80,000 tonnes per year “rapidly realisable in one to three years”. So far “no large-scale sector has been set up”, says a ministerial source.
These pellets obtained from wood waste, known as black pellets, were precisely at the heart of the Ecocombust project defended by EDF to compensate for the end of the use of coal at the Cordemais power station.
Indeed, in 2019, the government announced the closure of all coal-fired power plants by 2022.
Therefore, this call announced by the minister, restarts the Ecocombust project that had been considered closed. The news was announced by Anne-France Brunet MP (LREM). According to her, “this is an excellent signal in favour of our territory. The archive must be investigated, but this gives hope for the Cordemais site”.
Source: Ouest-France (2022)