City of Lorient
Lorient sits at the confluence of two rivers flowing into the ocean. This distinctive location makes the city particularly well-suited to aquathermal energy. The French AquaCOM pilot, led by Société Publique Locale Bois Energie Renouvelable (SPL BER), has carried out a feasibility study assessing the potential for aquathermal energy at three sites across the city. The results show that an aquathermal heating network could supply part of the city centre, including apartments, public facilities, and buildings belonging to the Ministry of Justice and the Army. This places Lorient at the forefront of efforts to decarbonise heating systems in France and across Europe more widely.
This system would be linked to a heating network. SPL BER has full control over wood supply management and is a renowned local expert with several operatingdistrict heating networks in the territory. The use of this new technology would help to achieve the Lorient’scarbon targets, while slowly getting out of fossil energy and wood as collective heating system. This pilot project is SPL BER's first aquathermal energy project and would also act as a regional and national reference site for aquathermal energy.