TotalEnergies starts up 160 GWh biogas facility in France

French energy group TotalEnergies (EPA:TTE) today said it has commissioned France's largest anaerobic digestion facility, which will reach a biomethane production capacity of 160 GWh, equivalent to the annual demand of 32,000 people.

Located in Mourenx, southwestern France, the BioBearn plant has started feeding biomethane into the natural gas network operated by Terega. This year it will produce 69 GWh and then increase capacity in line with growing biogas demand, the company said.

Ultimately, the facility will turn more than 220,000 tonnes a year of organic waste, more specifically residues from local farming and the agri-food industry, into 200,000 tonnes a year of natural fertiliser and 160 GWh of biomethane.

The project, whose development was launched in 2016, is TotalEnergies’ eighteenth biogas production unit in France.

“This project allows TotalEnergies to increase its production capacity to 700 GWh in biogas and is a new step in the objective to reach 20 TWh by 2030," said Olivier Guerrini, vice president, Biogas Business Unit, TotalEnergies.

TotalEnergies has the ambition to become a major biogas player globally through partnerships such as with Clean Energy in the US and Adani in India.

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