The Cordemais Power Station is a

thermal power station A thermal power station is a type of power station in which heat energy is converted to electrical energy. In a steam-generating cycle heat is used to boil water in a large pressure vessel to produce high-pressure steam, which drives a stea ...

in France. It has two coal-fired units with a capacity of 600 MW each. It previously had three oil-fired units; a 585 MW generating unit that was decommissioned in 1996 and two 700 MW generating unit decommissioned in 2017 and 2018 The station is in the western part of France at

Cordemais Cordemais (; br, Kordevez) is a commune situated in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas Fra ...

in the department of

Loire-Atlantique Loire-Atlantique (; br, Liger-Atlantel; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', br, Liger-Izelañ, link=no) is a department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. It had a population o ...

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; ; br, Broioù al Liger) is one of the 18 regions of France, in the west of the mainland. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital, Nantes, one of a handful of "balancing metropolises" (). ...

. With an annual electricity production of 4.28 TWh in 2017 it represents 25% of the country's thermal electricity production from

fossil fuels A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...

. It is an important source of electricity supply for

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...

. It has four chimneys, two of which at , are some of the tallest structures in France. It is fully owned by the French energy giant

Électricité de France Électricité de France S.A. (literally ''Electricity of France''), commonly known as EDF, is a French multinational electric utility company, largely owned by the French state. Headquartered in Paris, with €71.2 billion in revenues in 2 ...

. The station consumes between 1.3 and 2 million tonnes of coal per year. The coal, imported from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, arrives at port facilities at

Montoir-de-Bretagne Montoir-de-Bretagne (, literally ''Montoir of Brittany''; br, Mouster-al-Loc'h) is a commune in the Loire-Atlantique department in western France. Population The population data given in the table below refer to the commune of Montoir-de-Breta ...

and is conveyed to the power station by barge.

History

The Cordemais power station was commissioned in 1970 with a single oil-fired generating unit with a nameplate capacity of 585 MW. It was extended in 1976 with another two oil-fired units of 700 MW each, and in 1983 with one coal-fired unit of 600 MW. Its last expansion, another 600 MW coal-fired unit, was added in 1984. The station then functioned at a capacity of 3,185 MW until 1996, when the 1970s-built unit was decommissioned. In 2017 then in 2018, the other two oil-fired groups were decommissioned, resulting in its current capacity of 1,200 MW.

References

{{Reflist Coal-fired power stations in France

History

See also

References