Mayenne plans to supply all of its homes with green gas by 2030 – Le Journal des Entreprises – Maine-et-Loire

Mayenne can achieve autonomy in biomethane and green gas for its residential consumption in 2030 and total autonomy in 2050. Such is the ambition affirmed by Territoire d’énergie Mayenne (TEM) and GRDF. The first is the union representing all the communes of the department, owner of the energy networks, the second is in charge of the construction and operation of the networks.

Bound by a thirty-year concession contract, they announce that they will jointly set up energy planning to promote the production of biogas.

To achieve this, they are counting on the injection into the network of biomethane produced by the various methanisation units in the territory, carried out by groups of farmers or private companies. TEM participates in certain projects (for example, Méthamaine in Meslay-du-Maine).

Mayenne has five methanation sites with injection of biogas into the network, two of which started their activity in 2022, in Méral and Courcité. These five sites produce the equivalent of the gas consumption of 6,000 homes, ie 7.5% of the department’s consumption. It will therefore be necessary to count on the deployment of other projects to achieve the objective set. Already, two other sites will come into operation in 2023: CS Biogaz in Congrier, which can supply 1,200 homes, and Oudon Biogaz in Livre-la-Touche, which can supply 6,000 homes on its own.

Mayenne, future net exporter

There is still a long way to go, but due to the high density of farms in the territory, the potential for methanizable deposits in the department is significant: 1.8 TWh. The consumption of Mayenne is 1.2 TWh. Also, “it is possible that Mayenne will be a net exporter of gas before 2050”, predicts Quentin de Brémond d’Ars, territorial director GRDF Anjou-Sarthe-Mayenne.

To justify their ambition, these players rely on the observation that the production of green gas is accelerating. “We are witnessing a paradigm shift. Before, to create a connection, we looked at gas consumption. Today, the network is used to get production”, describes the president of TEM, Richard Chamaret. In 2022, nearly 35 km of new networks were built by GRDF, for 6 million euros of work, when the average was previously 5 km per year. To achieve gas autonomy, the objective is to create nearly 200 km of network, the current departmental network being 950 km. For this, “a local public investment of 13 to 15 million euros within 5 to 10 years is necessary”, indicates TEM. This will also make it possible to carry out anaerobic digestion projects, to deploy infrastructures to serve new municipalities (only 32 are connected to the gas network) and to develop uses, thanks to bioNGV refueling stations (three exist at this day).