France will continue to operate the last coal-fired power plant at least until 2024, instead of 2022 as previously expected, after the biomass conversion project of the Cordemais thermal power plant in western France was abandoned, the Ministry of Ecological Transition announced on Thursday and the EDF Energy Group, reports AFP.

This thermal power plant, the last coal-fired power plant in France, will be used on time to meet the needs of the western region “in winter, when energy consumption peaks, and will operate for a maximum of several tens, possibly hundreds, of hours,” said the Ministry of Ecological Transition, which also confirmed its carbon waiver strategy.

The French state and the EDF energy group are counting on forecasts made by RTE, the company that manages the French energy network, until 2030. According to these forecasts, the Cordemais thermal power plant will be needed to supply electricity to the western region of France at least until in 2024, when the EPR reactor at the Flamanville nuclear power plant in the Normandy region would be put into operation, according to Agerpres.

On Thursday, the EDF group announced the abandonment of a biomass conversion project for the Cordemais thermal power plant, named Ecocombust, due to the high cost of this project but also the withdrawal of the Suez company from the partnership.

According to a law adopted in 2019, in 2022 all four coal-fired power plants, the most harmful solid fuel for the environment, were to be closed in France. Two of these power plants have already been shut down and a third is due to be shut down next year.