To mark Regional Biomass Day on 15 November 2019, we opened up the heating plant in Rezé to a gathering of energy professionals.

This was an opportunity to review targets and continue to develop France’s number-one renewable energy.

Atlanbois: the association behind the Biomass Day event

Logo_AntlanboisBiomass Day is the brainchild of the Atlanbois association, which works to promote biomass across the region. With regional and national government support, the association’s aim is to bring together businesses, partners and stakeholders at professional and public events.

This day was an opportunity to review the targets from the Multi-year Energy Programme 2028: to continue to develop France’s number-one renewable energy and increase annual production by 40 TWh.

Visit the Atlanbois website

Biomass energy programme

A full programme was planned to present key information relating to biomass. The day included a tour of the Idex-operated heating plant in Rezé. Technical Manager Charles Bucquet and Operations Technician Antoine Salaun welcomed a group of 40 visitors and explained how the plant operates – a biomass heating plant is essentially a boiler system powered by vegetable matter, principally wood.

The new heating plant includes a 5 MW wood-fired boiler and two gas boilers with combined power of 13 MW. It uses 5,500 tonnes of wood a year to supply more than 6 km of networks.

Idex_chaufferie_Reze

Our teams highlighted the following:

  • Daily management of wood deliveries from three different suppliers: in 2017, the heating plant supplied its subscribers with 14,550 MWh of usable energy. Of this, 69% was produced from biomass in the form of wood chips and end-of-life wood residue sourced from within 100 km.

  • Management of tonnes of ash: 120 tonnes of ash are managed in the plant every year.

The heating plant consumes 5,000 tonnes of wood a year on average.

Concrete answers for project developers

The range of topics raised during the day meant that project developers left the event with concrete answers about biomass energy. The Atlanbois association offers them help with their choices and their commitment to reducing their environmental impacts. At the Rezé heating plant alone, 3,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions were avoided in 2017.

This environmentally friendly and economical system replaces fossil fuels such as fuel oil and gas. Biomass heating networks are multiplying across France and show great promise for the future.