The former is backed by Territoire d’Énergie Orne (Te61), a syndicate of the area’s towns and villages created to manage energy networks and develop renewable energies. This biomass plant and the associated heat network is replacing ageing boiler plants powered by fossil fuels – propane and fuel oil – and heats facilities including a town hall, nursery, and multipurpose hall, plus schools and several municipal housing units. Designed by a VINCI Energies-led consortium, it combines a 230 kW wood-fired boiler and a secondary 510 kW gas heater. The installation has been designed to use renewable energy in the form of dried wood chips from forestry and hedge maintenance, supplied by local farmers. As the project owner, Te61 takes care of energy monitoring and resells the heat produced to its network subscribers – the municipality of Rémalard en Perche and the Cœur du Perche municipal federation.

A second installation was created in Fiers on behalf of Unisat 61, a non-profit federation of Adapei de l’Orne back-to-work service providers (ESAT). This organisation helps people with disabilities find suitable employment in various fields such as carpentry, packing, green space maintenance and metalworking. The installed boiler heats the workspaces and offices of a community carpentry workshop using recovered biomass waste in the form of untreated wood shavings from the workshops.