The tallest tower of the Emile Huchet power station in Saint-Avold (Moselle) was dynamited this Sunday morning around 11 a.m., a symbolic step in the conversion of the site from coal to hydrogen.
In a few seconds, the 10,000 tonnes of concrete of cooling tower number 5, which measured around 120 m high, collapsed before the eyes of hundreds of onlookers.
Some 200 people, including fireworks and law enforcement officers, were mobilized for this “lightning strike”, according to Jean-Michel Mazalèrat, the president of GazelEnergie, the company which operates the plant.
Read alsoWood pellets instead of coal: the Saint-Avold power plant begins its conversion to biomass
Slated to close permanently at the start of 2022, the coal-fired power plant was restarted at the end of the same year to secure the country's supply in a context of energy tension.
Emile Huchet is one of only two coal-fired power stations still in operation in France, with that of Cordemais (Loire-Atlantique).
Both are also preparing their conversion to biomass.
But the Saint-Avold site wants to become an “eco-platform”: it is planning other projects such as “Emil’hy” (for Emile Huchet and hydrogen), which should enable low-cost hydrogen production by 2027. carbon and renewable, by electrolysis of water.
The project plans, for 2030, a total capacity of 400 MW and a production of 56,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year.