Fibre Excellence Provence has inaugurated its BioWatt green electricity turbine, a milestone in its 180 million euro investment plan.
This project represents an investment of 53 million euros, as part of Fibre Excellence Provence's overall investment plan of 180 million euros, aiming to bring the site up to the highest industrial and environmental standards, and thus ensure the plant's long-term future.
The implementation of the BioWatt project will enable the plant not only to accelerate its production of renewable energy to supply the region with biomass electricity, but also to make better use of wood residues from pulp production, as part of a circular economy.
Thanks to a cogeneration boiler equipped with a steam turbine twice as powerful as the existing one (25 megawatts), the project will increase the overall electrical production capacity of the Fibre Excellence Provence site by 50%. The excess power will be fed back into the public grid in Tarascon, thereby boosting the region's energy independence. Commissioned when the plant took over in the summer of 2021, the turbine took 18 months to complete, from delivery to installation and commissioning.
Through its production activity and the implementation of its transformation plan, Fibre Excellence Provence injects around 100 million euros into the local economy every year and contributes to 5,000 indirect jobs within the industry.