Vegetable producers in Brittany are protesting against the government's lack of progress concerning the development of renewable energies, including cogeneration, according to Fld.
'We want to promote cogeneration,' said François Pouliquen, a tomato producer with Brittany-based cooperative Savéol in Gouesnou, in the département of Finistère. 'We demand that the state thinks about giving value to the thermal energy of our greenhouses.'
Savéol is demanding that it be able to use cogeneration over a longer period of time in order for it to become profitable for smaller greenhouses.
For cogeneration to be profitable, the greenhouse must be at least 4ha for a five-month EDF contract. With a seven-month contract, around 20 farms could be started up with cogeneration. However, the maximum length of a in France is just five months.
By contrast, in Belgium and the Netherlands cogeneration is used all year round.
Savéol's president, Philippe Daré, told Fld that if cogeneration were used in a more flexible manner, it would help companies to compete with Belgian and Dutch producers.
