A wood-fired heating system and a heat grid in a small city of Brittany (France)
About this good practice
The need: need to change some furnaces in public facilities, in particular in the school, the town hall, the post office, the media library, the leisure centre, the RIPAM (inter-municipality childminders unit) and the cultural centre. At the same time, meetings were held with the city of Lorient, which presented its experience in this subject.
An opportunity study was carried out that showed that it was profitable for the municipality as long as the heating network was additionally connected to future urban developments (1 building of 11 social housing units, 1 building of 6 housing units and 19 houses).
At that time, the price of gas was low and was going down, but we were aware that prices could fluctuate.
Still, we added to the wood-fired heating system, an auxiliary gas heater. For now, this is the “setting” phase.
The objectives have been achieved, the heating system works very well. The deadlines were respected.
The wood-heating system is very often given as an example by the Metropolitan Community (Lorient Agglomeration) because it is buried.
The project is a success because the inhabitants of the city are satisfied, especially the residents because the system is buried, it is now a very green place. The chimneys are hidden by the architectural unit and a path; it is very well integrated into the landscape.
Main stakeholder: Locmiquélic City Council (4160 inhabitants).
Beneficiaries: Population of the city, equipment users and staff.
Resources needed
Total expenditure of the ERDF project: 541.518 € HT
Total expenditure, in total: 673.517 € HT
Evidence of success
Users: 160 children at school. Cultural centre capacity: 300 people
Inter-municipality childminders unit: 40 m2 (15 people)
Town Hall: 10 employees
Media library
36 housings
Fuels: 190 t/year of wood chip
54 toe at the inlet heating system
110 teq CO2 avoided per year
90% biomass
Potential for learning or transfer
The landfill system is a real success and was very well accepted by the local population. The wood-fired heating system is well integrated into the landscape, in a small unused square which has become a place of passage where young people stop and talk to each other.
Reduction of the environmental footprint.