MaPrimeRénov': Wood boiler installers demonstrate to benefit from the main aid

"We demand equal treatment in subsidies," Hervé Le Horgne, spokesman for the French Union of Biomass Boiler Manufacturers (SFCB), organizer of the demonstration, told AFP.

During a hearing before the deputies on Thursday morning at the National Assembly, the Minister of Housing Vincent Jeanbrun recalled that biomass boilers had been excluded from the aid for energy renovation by gesture (when only one type of work is carried out) in a logic of "refocusing" the MaPrimeRénov' subsidies, which is experiencing budgetary difficulties.

These boilers are still eligible for MaPrimeRénov' aid "provided that it is part of a large-scale renovation", that is to say, in a project for the overall renovation of a dwelling and not just the change of the heating system, he argued.

On Thursday morning, around sixty professionals from the sector expressed their anger and incomprehension on rue de Constantine in Paris, a stone's throw from the National Assembly. They set up about ten boilers at the gathering place, among signs indicating, among other things, "wood, the energy of purchasing power".

"The wood boiler is ten times less carbon-intensive than the gas or fuel oil boiler," Hervé Le Horgne pointed out, also praising the cost of a local energy source that is "three times cheaper than electricity."

"Our factories are experiencing overcapacity, and this is causing economic problems for industrial players, who are slow to modify their production line," stressed this professional, worried about the possible fall of a sector that is already selling "four times fewer boilers" than in 2022.