The Loire-Atlantique prefecture gives its approval to the conversion of the Cordemais coal-fired power station

"The company Paprec Waste From Energy (...) is authorized, subject to compliance with the requirements of this decree, to operate on the territory of the commune of Cordemais, the installations" of the coal-fired power plant site to lead to his project, according to the 71-page decree.

This order can still be challenged in court.

The daily Ouest-France revealed Thursday afternoon the authorization granted by the prefecture.

The CGT, which has long supported the Paprec project, called Ecocombust, had expressed its concern in recent weeks to see the project "trampling".

Last week, around sixty employees of the coal plant were invited to a meeting of EDF's central social and economic committee to question management on the future of this project to convert the plant to biomass.

The CGT and employees fear that EDF will deliberately increase the cost of the project to make it obsolete.

After announcing the abandonment of Cordemais in July 2021, in particular because of its cost, EDF announced in May 2022 to relaunch the project to convert the power plant to biomass (pellets primarily from wood waste).

Asked at the beginning of February about employees' fears, the energy company responded that the "progressive decarbonization" of Cordemais had been rolled out from 2023, with use of up to "20% of biomass to replace coal".

“A total conversion to biomass by 2027 requires defining the terms of regulation of such operation,” added EDF, stressing that “several working meetings have already taken place and (that) the work is continuing,” referring to “a decision by summer 2024”.

Ultimately, pellets are expected to represent 80% of the power plant's fuel, according to the Ecocombust conversion project. According to EDF, this process would reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its installations by 71% compared to 100% coal operation, avoiding the emission of 400.000 tonnes of CO2 per year.