When we talk about renewable energy, we often think of electricity, we quickly forget about gas. L’Allier, with its many farms and the biomethane they can produce, has a card to play, however, as this project in the west of the department demonstrates.
A 3 million euro project
After obtaining the green light from the Energy Regulatory Commission last December, the operators GRDF and GRTgaz plan to invest 3 million euros
in a reverse flow plant in a municipality of the Montluçon agglomeration not yet known.This installation planned for 2023 would allowintroduce the surplus biogas produced by the region’s methanizers into the transport network
, that is, what could not be consumed locally. Methanization
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is a natural process that transforms organic matter (manure, slurry, household bio-waste, etc.) to produce both renewable energy and a residue that can be used as soil and crop fertilizer called digestate.
Transporting gas to other territories “With the accumulation of anaerobic digestion projects in the area,by the second half of 2023 we have a possible saturation of the network
, explains David Pinheiro, deputy director of GRDF in Allier and Puy-de-Dôme. When the biogas plants inject the biogas into GRDF’s public network, it cannot be consumed instantly at certain times of the year, especially in summer. “
This is where the reverse flow plant will come in to compress this gas and pass it from the distribution network to the transmission network and that it benefits other territories.
Ultimately, the objective is to replace fossil gas which is now imported from abroad with local, renewable gas while creating jobs. Allier is a department, as a whole, where the agricultural deposit is abundant, it is a real wealth
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Several methaniser projects in the AllierToday in the Allier there is a methaniser in Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule which injects gas into the public network . Another, in Besson, should be operational in the spring. According to GRDF, several methanation injection projects could be completed in the years to come, particularly around Montluçon, Lételon and Saint-Désiré. “ If it was decided to build this reverse flow plant, it is above all so as not to penalize future projects.
», Affirms David Pinheiro.
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Biogas can produce heat, electricity or be purified into biomethane for use in the gas network or as fuel for transport.
Allier transforms manure into energy: anaerobic digestion projects are multiplying in the department
The first French countdown station emerged in 2019, in Brittany. There are still only a handful of them and the Montluçon power plant would be the first in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Guillaume Bellavoine
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– GRTgaz manages the transmission network in France while GRDF ensures distribution.
Montluçon
03100
