Pending its death, this plant - one of the last two coal-fired on French soil with that of Cordemais (Loire-Atlantique) - is nevertheless running at full speed in order to compensate for the impromptu shutdown of several nuclear reactors in 'EDF.

A renewal of activity allowed by a ministerial decree of February 5 which authorizes it to operate 1,600 hours until its final shutdown, instead of the 700 hours initially planned.

Aerial view of the Emile Huchet coal-fired power plant of GazelEnergie, on February 14, 2022 in Carling, Moselle JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN AFP

In the control room of the Emile Huchet power plant, straddling the towns of Saint-Avold and Carling, David George does not take his eyes off the screens.

"Everything is computerized now, before it was buttons," he says, showing a photo taken in the 1980s.

"It's not just an industry that is closing but a page that is turning" in a region, Lorraine, which has already mourned its coal mines and its black mouths, raises this 49-year-old technical executive .

If he recognizes a hint of "nostalgia", Sylvain Krebs, like his colleagues, was well aware that coal, "it would end" one day, and also well aware of the "harmful effects" on the environment with massive emissions of CO2.

But all the same: "For 150 years, we have benefited from it".

An operator in front of the screens in the control room of the Emile Huchet power plant of GazelEnergie in Saint-Avold (Moselle), on February 14, 2022. JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN AFP

From now on, the plant's employees intend to become "pioneers" of green energy in France.

"I hope we will recreate an activity for 200 years like what happened with coal, but this time with hydrogen" which should be produced on the site in the future, enthuses Sylvain Krebs, 46 years old.

From coal to biomass

In the meantime, the facilities will be dismantled to allow the construction of a boiler operating with biomass, a project that the State intends to support up to 12.7 million euros, the Minister of Industry indicated in December. Agnes Pannier-Runacher.

Aerial view of the Emile Huchet coal-fired power plant of GazelEnergie in Carling, Moselle, on February 14, 2022 JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN AFP

"We are going to develop a 20 megawatt biomass boiler which will burn wood instead of coal", explains Camille Jaffrelo, spokesperson for GazelEnergie, the company that owns the Emile Huchet power plant.

This future boiler should make it possible to provide "green heat" to the industrialists of the chemical platform close to Carling, she specifies.

Will the environment benefit from it?

Like other associations, France Nature Environnement has doubts.

For Michel Dubromel, responsible for energy issues within the NGO, the new installation will certainly be "less polluting" than the coal-fired power plant, but on condition of not "razing forests" to make it work.

Job Concerns

Philippe Lenglart, director of the Emile Huchet power plant of GazelEnergie, on February 14, 2022 in Saint-Avold (Moselle).

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE VERHAEGEN AFP

The director of the plant, Philippe Lenglart, hopes to see the construction site begin in the first months of 2023.

Of the 87 employees of the coal-fired power plant, 49 will retire, eight have received promises of employment within the new installation and two remain "without solution", he specifies, explaining that the others, who benefited from a voluntary departure plan, found jobs "outside the company".

The future boiler should eventually employ around twenty employees, to which should be added those working in the production of hydrogen.

But not enough to fully reassure Pascal Bernardi, union representative of Force Ouvrière of the central.

The project, he notes, is not yet "set in stone".

© 2022 AFP