The heating network for Oyonnax in the Rhône-Alpes region of France, has awarded a 20-year contract to Idex, a French specialist in energy services. This contract involves the extension, upgrading the operation and maintenance of  Oyonnax’ large new heating network , which is due to be inaugurated on May 13, 2014 after twelve months of work.

The  large new network therefore has a new biomass boiler of 11 MW, which uses, according to Idex, the local energy resources of the territory, being fueled by wood chips from the forests of Ain and Jura, and consumes about 20,000 tons of wood per year to cover 75% of the needs of network subscribers with the remaining 25% being provided by two gas installations.

2 km of network were also created with 18 new substations to serve the equivalent of 1000  additional homes, increasing the total to the equivalent of 3,200 homes served. Idex also claim that they will be able to lower the cost of heating via the use of biomass, thus drastically reducing the bills of subscribers.