Bruno Le Maire and Roland Lescure unveil an action plan to produce 1 million heat pumps by 2027

Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, along with Roland Lescure, the Minister Delegate for Industry and Energy, have unveiled an action plan aimed at producing 1 million heat pumps in France by 2027. This announcement was made during their visit to the Intuis plant in the Somme. 

The French government recognizes the potential for strengthening local heat pump production and increasing the share of French added value in this sector. They anticipate a significant rise in heat pump installations in the coming years. 

To expedite the growth of the sector and maintain France’s industrial position globally, the government has outlined eight measures as part of their action plan. These measures include: 

1. Providing financial support for the establishment of new heat pump production plants through green industry investment tax credits. 
2. Redirecting public procurement and public aid towards French and European heat pumps with superior environmental performance. 
3. Simplifying standards to facilitate the installation of heat pumps in multi-family housing.
4. Promoting innovation in heat pump technology by extending the call for projects Demo-TASE (Development of technological building blocks and demonstrators for energy systems), part of the investment plan France 2030.
5. Supporting the development of professional skills in the sector, as well as the installation, maintenance, and production of heat pump equipment.
6. Enhancing consumer confidence in French heat pump products through increased controls related to subsidies and improved knowledge of their performance.
7. Raising awareness about heat pump solutions and providing better support to professionals through the establishment of a heat pump expertise center accessible to all. 
8. Encouraging the use of heat pumps in industrial applications. 

To summarize, Le Maire expresses that a transition towards an increased use of heat pumps entails many opportunities, but also that the main challenge will be to locate the brunt of the required production of heat pumps in France. Le Maire has listed several measures that have been set in motion to achieve this objective: “financing, in particular through the Green Industry tax credit, promotion of quality products, more environmentally virtuous products manufactured in our territories, simplification of standards, innovation, training and expertise.” 

Read more in article from The Ministry of Finance

Dalkia aims to invest €245 million in one of France’s largest district heating networks

Following up on December’s newsletter, SHC by Sweden takes a closer look at the development of one of France’s five biggest DHC networks, covering the cities of Chambéry, La Motte-Servolex, Bassens and Cognin.  

Following a competitive bidding process for the operation of the network for the next 25 years, Dalkia was selected. The new contract will start on 1 September 2024, and Dalkia has set ambitious targets to interconnect the region’s networks, providing for a significant increase of nearly 50% in the energy delivered by 2030 compared to today. They also have plans to modernize and enhance the district heating network through various measures related to heat generation, recovery, and storage within the network. 

Some of the key initiatives include optimizing the utilization of waste heat from household waste recovery by Savoie Déchets, constructing a new wood-energy boiler room in Cognin, modernizing the existing wood-energy boilers in Bissy and Croix-Rouge (Hauts-de-Chambéry), recovering heat from biomass fumes emitted by three wood-fired boiler rooms, utilizing heat recovered from steam at the Placoplatre industrial plant in Chambéry, and installing a thermal storage system with a capacity of 400 cubic meters of hot water to meet peak heat consumption during mornings and evenings. 

These projects collectively represent a significant investment of €245 million by Dalkia. Out of this amount, €182 million will be allocated for network development and modernization, while €63 million will be dedicated to the maintenance and renewal of the facilities. 

Read more in article from Chambery  

In Grenoble, the heating company CCIAG has has demonstrated the role of IoT to detect leaks in the heating network 

In Grenoble, the city’s heating company CCIAG is implementing a large-scale deployment of IoT sensors to detect water leaks in the district heating network. While this application is not yet widely used in the IoT, it has demonstrated significant benefits within large district heating networks. 

CCIAG is the second-largest heating network operator in France. Sébastien Blanchoz, the head of the Operations and Distribution division at CCIAG, has highlighted that the piping in their network is old, leading to an increase in water leakages. Currently, CCIAG has 3,000 checkpoints to detect leaks, which takes three to four weeks to inspect. To address this issue, they are installing 500 sensors along 178.3 km of pipes located under public roads in seven municipalities in Grenoble. Additionally, they will be monitoring nearly 1,400 substations. 

The search for leaks has been a long-standing concern for CCIAG, as they connect over 100,000 homes to their network, representing approximately one-third of the city’s population. Initial tests were conducted in 2012, but they were not successful due to imperfect prototypes. For example, one of the sensors offered was sealed and could not have its batteries replaced. However, a recent leak in 2023, resulting in a daily water loss of 200 cubic meters, prompted CCIAG to launch a new call for tenders and address the problem more effectively. 

This project has garnered interest from other local authorities, including Metz, who have reached out to CCIAG. The market potential is significant, considering that there were 946 heating networks identified in France by the end of 2022, according to a survey by the Federation of Environmental Energy Services (Fedene). 

Read more in article from Journal du Net 

Read more in article from News Day FR 

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