It is one of the 50 industrial sites emitting the most CO2 in France. After Dunkirk, Fos-Marseille and Le Havre, the port of Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, will receive public aid, up to 4.1 million euros, to activate the decarbonization of its activities, indicated the Minister of Industry Roland Lescure on Monday. “The Great West is joining the French team of low-carbon industrial zones (ZIBAC)” around projects for the “ecological transformation of a territory”, declared the Minister of Industry in an interview with West France.
As in the 1960s and 70s, when the major infrastructures were created for the industrial development of the country – high voltage lines, nuclear power plants or roads – the ZIBAC projects provide for the construction of infrastructures centered around decarbonization, in particular to allow the transport of hydrogen, or for the capture of excess CO2. To finance the “infrastructures of tomorrow” in the Nantes-Saint-Nazaire area, the State will provide “4.1 million euros, or 50% of the total amount which will come from industrialists and communities”, specified the minister.
8% of French industrial emissions alone
State aid “will also support innovation towards the energy infrastructures of tomorrow” such as Lhyfe and its off-shore hydrogen electrolyser, which would be “a world first”, said Roland Lescure. “We are also going to study biomass deposits, biofuel projects that will decarbonize aviation, and heat networks,” he said. The ZIBAC project also provides for the development of self-consumption of energy by industrialists by means of photovoltaic panels and wind power, recalled the Minister.
According to the figures from the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning (SGPE) also published on Monday, the 50 industrial sites with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, excluding refining, will have to reduce their emissions by 43 to 25 million tonnes of CO2e from 2022 to 2030, and the rest of industry by 33 to 20 million.
With in particular “a fertilizer plant, a power plant and a refinery”, the Nantes-Saint Nazaire area alone represents 8% of French industrial emissions, recalled Roland Lescure.