Decarbonizing heat: the wood pellet industry proposes 10 measures to accelerate the energy transition

Objective: to document, with supporting data, how a renewable energy source, competitive and already deployed in 2 million homes and over 3.000 district heating plants, can accelerate the phase-out of fossil fuels. This is contingent upon public authorities ceasing to treat it as a budgetary adjustment variable.

The end of the single-gesture MaPrimeRénov' scheme, a contradictory signal with the PPE3

Since April 2024, the MaPrimeRénov' grant for single-action wood pellet stoves and boilers has been reduced by 30%, and then by another 30% in 2025, effectively halving the level of aid in less than two years. In 2026, the single-action MaPrimeRénov' scheme for biomass boilers was eliminated, and its complete elimination, including for stoves, took effect on September 1, 2026 (only heat pumps remain eligible). At the same time, the value of Energy Savings Certificates (CEE) for biomass boilers was reduced by two-thirds in the summer of 2025.

This budgetary trajectory directly contradicts the third Multiannual Energy Programme (PPE3), which explicitly recognizes the need to support, through targeted subsidies, the replacement of old wood-burning appliances with modern equipment and the substitution of carbon-based heating systems with renewable solutions. Propellet points out that a planning document is insufficient without budgetary coherence: one cannot state that a solution has its place in the energy mix while simultaneously eliminating, in the same year, the subsidies that enable households to access it.

This question is all the more pressing given that the heat pump, now the only supported standalone solution, is not suitable for all buildings or all climates: high-temperature heating systems, electrical connection constraints, the configuration of older buildings, and isolated rural areas all play a role. The question then arises: how will the households concerned move away from fossil fuels if the only available alternative is neither suitable nor economical for them?

For Propellet, simultaneously reducing budgetary subsidies (MaPrimeRénov') and extra-budgetary aid (CEE) amounts to de facto condemning a sector that is nevertheless recognized by the State as a fully-fledged decarbonization solution.

An alternative plan built on the needs of the field

Faced with this situation, Propellet publishes a plan structured around 10 concrete proposals, organized into a base of cross-cutting measures (fairness of aid, revision of CEE sheets, technological neutrality of energy audits, national campaign for the renewal of old appliances, integration of the sector into decision-making bodies) and two sectoral axes: the decarbonization of buildings (residential, tertiary, public) and that of industry.

The document does not propose pitting wood pellets against electrification, but rather acknowledges that phasing out fossil fuels will not be achieved with a single solution. Electric heating, heat pumps, district heating networks, and wood pellets are intended to be deployed according to actual heating needs, local conditions, and technical constraints, and not based on short-term budgetary decisions.

For Eric Vial, general delegate of Propellet: "We cannot say that an energy source has its place in the PPE (Multi-Year Energy Program) and then, in the same year, eliminate the subsidies that allow French people to access it. Our plan proposes concrete solutions to ensure that the phase-out of fossil fuels does not come at the cost of excluding millions of households."

A ready, mature, and already mobilized sector

• 2 million homes already heated with wood pellets, and 7,5 million primary residences heated with wood in France (ADEME)
• 80 pellet plants in France, for a production of 2,4 million tonnes in 2025
• 20.000 direct and indirect jobs, which cannot be outsourced, mostly located in rural areas
• 90% of the added value of the sector is located in France
• More than 3.000 wood pellet boilers are already in operation in industry, public buildings and the service sector.

In its plan, Propellet also cites the example of Austria, which has put in place since October 2025 a subsidy of up to €8.500 per installation for the replacement of boilers with wood pellet equipment, a choice presented as a direct counter-example to the French trajectory.