Transforming the Loire Estuary Regional Community into a Low-Carbon Energy Hub
The Loire Estuary Regional Community has just been designated as the successful tenderer following the call for proposals by the French National Agency for Energy Transition (ADEME) for a low-carbon industrial activity zone (ZIBaC) within the framework of the "France 2030" Programme. The consortium comprising the Loire Estuary Association of Industrial Firms (AILE: Arcelormittal, Cargill, EDF, Elengy, Engie, Eqiom, TotalEnergies, and Yara), Saint Nazaire Urban Area District Authority, Estuaire et Sillon Community District Authority, Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port, and Pays de la Loire Regional Authority, is proposing some thirty concrete actions to speed up the decarbonization and energy transition of this industrial area. The ZIBaC label will make it possible to secure funding to prepare and to ramp up the deployment of those actions.
A common ambition and roadmap have been elaborated, with the threefold objective of achieving carbon neutrality in the port area by 2050, of building industrial resilience in the face of the anticipated consequences of climate change, and of encouraging the emergence of new sectors supporting energy transition.
Towards a Low-Carbon Energy Hub
The action programme representing an investment in the amount of 8.2 million euros over a period of 2 years, 4.1 million euros of which are to be provided by ADEME, aims to accelerate the transformation of this industrial and port activity zone employing 28 500 people into a massive low-carbon energy hub, thanks to the development of infrastructures making the connection between low-carbon energy producers and the emerging and future needs of France as a whole, involving notably a multimodal hydrogen hub permitting the production, importation and transportation of low-carbon hydrogen, a multimodal CO2 hub enabling the capture, reception, value-enhancement and exportation of industrial CO2, a natural gas hub for the production and distribution of green/low-carbon gas, and a centre of operations dedicated to other low-carbon energy sources and permitting the production and supply of biofuels, bio-LNG…
The other areas of focus are those themes relating to industrial ecology (the establishment of local loops for electrical power produced from renewable energy sources, the installation of a heating network, the development of the biomass, and the decarbonization of industrial processes and port throughput) and to environmental resilience: how best to adapt to climate change and to collectively improve water management.
This initiative serves to provide support for the decarbonization projects of industrial firms that have committed to a deliberate trajectory to attain net zero by 2050, by relying on synergies between Regional Community players and by strengthening the economic appeal of the entire area.
Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port is also a member of Meet2050, the Institute for Expertise in the Decarbonization of the French Maritime Sector, which was founded in Nantes in July of this year. This Organization brings together the major industrial players (shipping lines, ports, energy providers, shipyards, consultancy firms…). Its aims are to assist them in their process of energy and environmental transition, and to advise public authorities.
Contact at Nantes Saint-Nazaire Port – Ludovic Bocquier