This Tuesday 28 July, the Minister of the Armed Forces visited the Mailly-le-Camp military base (Aube). On an official visit organised to inaugurate the new repair and maintenance workshop for the famous Leclerc tanks, Florence Parly decided to make a detour to view the base’s biomass heating plant, designed, built and operated by Idex. 

A few months after announcing her plan to decarbonise the French Army while visiting the Saint-Christol solar farm, it was not surprising that Florence Parly was keen to inspect the Mailly-le-camp biomass heating plant, the first in France fuelled by both woodchips and miscanthus, also known as elephant grass or China grass, an excellent alternative to traditional firewood.

The Minister was able to visit the installations and talk with the different players involved, accompanied by General Pierre de Dinechin (Director, ESID de Metz), Erwan Manac’h (ESID de Metz), Francis Moussu (East Region Director, Idex), Didier Roux-Dessarps (Deputy Managing Director, Idex) and the site operations team composed of Bruno Gérard, Stéphane Saelen and Alexandre Beck.