The announcement by the government on Sunday of the restarting next winter "
as a precaution
" of the coal-fired power plant in Saint-Avold (Moselle), given the war in Ukraine, is not really a surprise.
However, it runs counter to a desire to close these thermal power stations, which has accelerated since the 2010s. Of ten coal-fired power stations in operation ten years ago in mainland France, only one remained , in Cordemais, in Loire-Atlantique, after the closure of Saint-Avold last March.
To discover
Taxes 2022: all about your tax return
Read alsoRussian gas alert: Germany uses coal
The restart of the latter "
is part of the closure plan
", assured the Ministry of Energy Transition, which specified that the commitment of the President of the Republic to close all coal-fired power plants in France remained "
unchanged
”.
It was a campaign promise by Emmanuel Macron in 2017. At the time, mainland France still had four coal-fired power stations, which the one who was then only a simple candidate for the Élysée said he wanted close by 2022. Target not met.
The Cordemais plant could even not close until 2026.
Big CO2 emitter
Even with the reopening of Saint-Avold, “
we would remain, in any case, below 1% of electricity produced by coal
”, indicates the Ministry of Energy Transition.
In 2021, coal was only responsible for 0.7% of electricity production in France (3.8 TWh out of 522.9 TWh), according to figures from RTE.
A steady decline for several decades.
France made the choice very early on to abandon coal for nuclear power.
No new coal-fired power plant has been built since 1984.
They therefore closed one after the other, a movement accelerated in the early 2010s by greater consideration of climate issues.
Because coal is a big emitter of CO2.
At the beginning of 2020, the government assured that coal-fired power plants represented 30% of greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector - for less than 1.2% of national electricity consumption.
Read alsoWithout Russian gas, Europe burns more coal
Compared to its European neighbours, France is much less dependent on coal for its electricity production.
In 2021, it was on average the source of 15% of European electricity, according to a recent study by the think tank Ember.
A share that even rises to 30% in Germany, and even to 80% in Poland.
And the use of coal in the EU is expected to increase further in the coming months, due to the reduction in Russian gas supplies.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/2C5HI6YHNFHDLJSBNWHOIAS2AE.jpeg)
