The CCGT plant at Bouchain is equipped with General Electric’s new high-capacity “9HA” turbine. The innovative 9HA CCGT delivers improved capacity (600 MW achievable in under 30 minutes) and return (over 60%) and offers good environmental performance with CO2 emissions of around 360g/KWh on average, one-third of those of the old neighbouring coal-fired plant shut down in 2015.
Under specific operating conditions it generated a record return of 62.22%. Operation of the facility was less sustained in 2020 (5,071 hours and 2.4TWh) compared to 2019 (6,015 hours and 2.8TWh), because of a long shutdown to perform a first hot part inspection (IPC) on the TAC 9HA.
Regulatory notice
Fossil fuel-fired power plants are subject to legislation on facilities that are classified for the protection of the environment (ICPEs), which is organised in the French Environment Code. Activities covered by listed facilities legislation are listed in a register which places them in a declaration, registration, or authorization regime depending on the level of risks and drawbacks which may arise. These regulations require sites to be restored when a facility is taken out of service, depending on the expected future use of the land; for certain facilities, the constitution of financial guarantees is also required. Depending on the nature of the hazards and/or drawbacks for each category of installation, these are designed to ensure surveillance of the site, the ongoing security of the facility, interventions in the event of accidents prior to or subsequent to closure, and restoration of the site after closure.
Thermal generation activities are also subject to other specific regulations, including those resulting from Directive 2012/18 of 4 July 2012 (known as “Seveso-III”) as well as the more general air quality legislation resulting from
EU Directive 2001/81/EC of 23 October 2001 on the reduction of national emissions of certain atmospheric pollutants (the “NEC Directive”),Directive 2010/75/EU of 24 November 2010 on industrial emissions (IED), and
Directive 2015/2193/EU on the limitation of emissions of certain pollutants in to the air from medium combustion plants (sulphur dioxide, (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and dust).
In 2020, EDF’s thermal power plants in mainland France emitted 4.05 million tons of CO2 (4.3 million tonnes in 2019) for a net electricity generation of about 8.85TWh (9.85TWh in 2019). The CO2 content per kWh generated by EDF’s thermal power plants in mainland France in 2020 is 449 g/kWh net (426 g/kWh net in 2019(1)). This slight rise in the CO2 component of EDF’s thermal kWh is the result of a smaller proportion of CCGT plants in EDF’s thermal generation mix; these accounted for some 83% of thermal generation fleet output in 2020 (compared to 89% in 2019). It is to be noted that in 2010, the CO2 content per kWh generated by EDF’s thermal fleet in mainland France was still more than 900g CO2/kWh net.
In 2020, EDF’s thermal generation fleet in mainland France also emitted 0.7kt of SO2, 2.7kt of NOx and 0.02kt of dust. Per kWh generated, polluting emissions from EDF’s thermal plants have fallen compared with 2010 by six times for NOx, by over thirty-five times for SO2 and by over seventy times for dust. These drastic reductions in emissions were made possible by the shutdown of the oldest thermal plants, there novation and installation of smoke treatment equipment using the best techniques available at the most recent plants, the use of low sulphur fuel and the commissioning of low pollution natural gas combined cycle turbines.
The environmental performance of the thermal fleet in mainland France is fully in keeping with the Sustainable Development goals set out by the EDF group.
In particular, these aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 25 million tons of CO2 eq by 2030, in keeping with the commitment to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
EDF has planned all of the decommissioning operations on its thermal fleet units which were shut down or whose shutdown is scheduled. The provisions for these operations have been made in an amount that corresponds to the cost of decommissioning all of the units being operated and the clean-up of the sites (see section 6.1 “Consolidated financial statements at 31 December 2020”,
note 17.1“Other provisions for decommissioning”).
In 2020, EDF continued the decommissioning work on sites that had been definitively shut down. The main work carried out in 2020 was asbestos removal on the units withdrawn from operation at Cordemais and Le Havre, together with decommissioning on the Vitry site. Following on from this work, EDF commissioned and carried out a number of expert appraisal and ground depollution works, in particular at Vitry, Aramon, and Porcheville.
EDF is careful to preserve the potential of its sites to the greatest extent possible, with precision allocation of space and the implementation of local monitoring of planning regulations so as to secure its own needs. This differentiated ground and space management has made it possible to free up EDF land from occupancy issues (freeing up new land resources, biodiversity potential, and restoring natural land), taking into account the Group’s new needs and assisting local authorities with the development of new types of activity.
EDF group is now the leader in renewable energy in Europe and more specifically, the leading supplier of hydropower in the European Union. Hydropower generation is the Group’s most significant renewable energy source, with installed capacity of 22.3GW. The Group is also leader in developing competitive industrial sectors, primarily wind and solar. EDF’s goal is to achieve 21.3GW of net installed capacity in solar and wind power by the end of 2024. Renewable energies already account for a quarter of the Group’s overall installed capacity.
The EDF group’s commitments in terms of developing renewable energy are also described in section 3.1.1.4 “EDF, a company committed to the development of decarbonated energy in Europe”.
(en MW) | Hydropower | Wind | Photovoltaic | Biomas | Geothermal | Marine | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| France | France Hydropower 20,484 | France Wind 1,546 | France Photovoltaic 291 | France Biomas 208 | France Geothermal 1 | France Marine 240 | France Total 22,770 |
| Europe excl. France | Europe excl. France Hydropower 1,155 | Europe excl. France Wind 1,838 | Europe excl. France Photovoltaic 94 | Europe excl. France Biomas 7 | Europe excl. France Geothermal
| Europe excl. France Marine
| Europe excl. France Total 3,093 |
| America | America Hydropower 205 | America Wind 4,230 | America Photovoltaic 1,127 | America Biomas
| America Geothermal
| America Marine
| America Total 5,562 |
| Asia | Asia Hydropower 432 | Asia Wind 430 | Asia Photovoltaic 213 | Asia Biomas
| Asia Geothermal
| Asia Marine
| Asia Total 1,075 |
| Africa | Africa Hydropower - | Africa Wind 335 | Africa Photovoltaic 474 | Africa Biomas
| Africa Geothermal
| Africa Marine
| Africa Total 809 |
TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY | TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY Hydropower 22,276 | TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY Wind 8,379 | TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY Photovoltaic 2,199 | TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY Biomas 215 | TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY Geothermal 1 | TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY Marine 240 | TOTAL NET INSTALLED CAPACITY Total 33,310 |
*As a proportion of the percentage held.
(1) This indicator is calculated by comparing CO2 emissions to net energy in operation (including self-consumption by auxiliary unit systems).
