2023-09-26 08:30:42
During an interview on TF1 and France 2 on Sunday September 24, Emmanuel Macron announced that France would exit coal in 2027. This announcement, presented as “progress”, schedules this exit five years late compared to the objectives set in 2017. .
Reheated. While Emmanuel Macron presents his ecological planning this Monday, he announced on Sunday September 24 the end of coal in France in 2027 via the conversion of the last two coal power plants in France. “Between now and 2027, what are we going to do? We still have two coal-fired power stations, Cordemais [Loire-Atlantique] and Saint-Avold [Moselle]we will completely convert them to biomass”, he announced during a television interview on TF1 and France 2. For Cordemais, a conversion project was already in place. However, the end of coal was announced for 2022 since 2017. How did we get there? We’ll give you the history once more.
An announcement from Nicolas Hulot from July 2017
In July 2017, the Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition Nicolas Hulot announced the end of electricity production from coal from 2022 as part of his climate plan. In November 2019, the energy-climate law ratified a system leading to the closure of the last four coal-fired power plants in mainland France by 2022.
The coal unit of the Gardanne power station (Bouches-du-Rhône) officially closed in the summer of 2021, following it had stopped operating in 2018. The Le Havre coal-fired power station stopped operating on March 31, 2021.
2022: recovery, rather than the end of coal
There was then only one coal-fired power plant left in operation which was due to close in 2022: that of Cordemais. This was without counting on the electricity network manager RTE who, predicting a tight electricity supply for the coming winters in France until 2030, requested “maintaining availability or converting the Cordemais power plant to biomass”.
Finally, the extension of the activity of this power plant was approved by the Loire-Atlantique prefecture in a decree signed on October 3, 2022. At the same time, the Emile-Huchet coal-fired power plant in Saint-Avold restarted its production in November. 2022, following a shutdown announced as permanent on March 31, 2022, to secure the country’s supply in a context of energy tension.
In 2023, in order to avoid any winter blackout, the last two coal-fired power plants in France have once more obtained authorization from the Ministry of Ecological Transition to operate until the end of 2024.
Greenpeace deplored Sunday evening in a press release a five-year “setback” in the phasing out of coal. “This exit from coal in 2027 is an admission of failure for Emmanuel Macron, who is trying to disguise it as progress […]. If he were truly ambitious and pioneering, Emmanuel Macron would also have announced dates for phasing out oil and fossil gas., adds the NGO. She also questions the origin of the fuel that will be used, as no information has been circulated at this stage.
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