The bad news first came from Luc Rémont, by telephone, on Monday 16 September. The EDF CEO announced it to a staff representative. The company then made it official on Tuesday 24 September, the day after a union press release: management “Consider stopping the Ecocombust project,” The company plans to convert one of the last two coal-fired power stations in the country, Cordemais (Loire-Atlantique), into biomass (wood waste).
The project had the particularity of being carried out by the employees themselves, and coordinated by the CGT. “What an affront, what contempt, what an insult that EDF is making to the entire Loire region, which did not need this to find itself already in great difficulty in terms of industrial employment”the union said. The two Cordemais units comprise 335 agents from the public sector.
The company says it has been considering the future of the site since 2015. “After the analysis, She arguesSince the technical and economic conditions for carrying out this project are not met, EDF will not be able to completely replace coal with pellets. [granulés de bois]. »
“Lack of State strategy”
Following initial negotiations with the multinational Suez, The electrician had started talks with the recycling company Paprec to provide him with “black pellets”, reclaimed wood.
The situation is difficult to accept for the employees of EDF, of which the State is the sole shareholder. Especially since the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, made the promise in September 2023 to ” completely (…) convert “ The last two coal-fired power stations (0.16% of national electricity production last year) are based on biomass. After postponing the target for five years, the Head of State set the end of the use of this fossil fuel, the most polluting of all, in 2027.
The socialist mayors of Nantes and Saint-Nazaire, Johanna Rolland and David Samzun, criticise the management of EDF for acting “outside any territorial logic and breaking with clear commitments (…) The President of the Republic himself stated this. It is also the sign of“an absence of a State strategy with social, economic and environmental consequences”, according to two Loire-Atlantique representatives in the Senate, the socialist Karine Daniel and the environmentalist Ronan Dantec.
The uncertain future of the other coal-fired power plant, Saint-Avold
“The State (…) Will you let a project for the future and ecological transition invented by employees die?asks another senator, the communist Fabien Gay, knowing that Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who became Minister of Energy again on Saturday 21 September, had previously declared herself in favour of Ecocombust.
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