French utility Gazel Energie has reached a deal to supply power generated at its 150MW wood chip-fired Provence 4 power plant to the French government over the coming eight years.
The plant, located in Gardanne, southern France, will restart operations at the beginning of 2025 with a running capacity of 4,000 hr/yr, the French utility said in a social media posting on Tuesday.
The French government has agreed to pay Gazel $800mn over eight years to buy power generated at Provence 4, suggesting the power purchase price under the deal was €166.67/MWh.
The deal is "essential" for the decarbonisation of the south, Gazel Energie said.
The unit is scheduled to end its current outage on 5 January 2025. It has been off line since 12 December 2023 because of technical issues. Provence 4 had restarted operations in February 2022 following a two-year long outage, but the unit has since experienced many outages for maintenance.
Sustained output at Provence 4 is due to support French import demand for hardwood chips from early next year. The country imported 210,000t of hardwood chips in 2023 from 130,000t on average in the previous two years. The figures are for chips under the 440122 HS classification code, typically delivered to power or heat generators, although these may include volumes shipped to other competing sectors.
