Idex, a specialist in energy services, has announced that the town of Annecy has renewed and extended its heating network contract for a period of 24 years. This network, which serves the residents of the Novel neighbourhood, had already passed from fuel oil to natural gas, and is now 85% powered by wood, according to Idex. The new wood boiler should be inaugurated on June the 5th next year after three years of work.

The new biomass boiler will annually consume nearly 21 000 tonnes of wood, welcome 5 25-tonne trucks per day with a storage of 2,300 m3 of wood which equates, Idex claim, to 4 days of autonomy. The boiler covers 85% of the needs of subscribers to the heating network and has a capacity of 12 MW, and is complemented by three gas boilers in the event of a problem. In total, the facility has a capacity of 41 MW, and produced according to Idex 53500 MWh, avoiding 12,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

The project will also see Idex undertake an  extension to the network from 5.5 km in 2011 to 7.7 km, and from 47 to 65 substations. Today, the equivalent of 5,000 homes and 15 public facilities are served, which would represent a 40% increase in subscribers.