EDF has decided to shut the last unit (580 MW) of its coal-fired power plant in Le Havre (northwestern France) in the spring of 2021. This is earlier than the shutdown timeline announced by the French government, which aims to close the remaining coal-fired power plants by 2022, in order to reach a CO2-free power generation by 2050. EDF has considered to convert the plant to biomass, which was technically and economically challenging, but the decision means that this project was abandoned.
In March 2019, EDF had announced that it would convert its 1.2 GW Cordemais coal-fired power plant to biomass (pellets from discarded wood) by spring 2022. The Cordemais power plant includes two coal-fired units, which were commissioned in 1983 and 1984. The "Ecocombust" conversion project could replace around 1.3 to 2 Mt/year of coal imports from Poland, Australia and the United States with around 700 kt/year of biomass and would reduce the net capacity of the two 580 MW units to 530 MW.
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