Albioma

Albioma is an independent renewable energy producer, supporting the energy transition with biomass and photovoltaic energy.

Lobbying Activity

Response to Strategy for the EU’s outermost regions

9 Jan 2026

French Outermost Regions geographic isolation and climate specificities create constraints that fundamentally differentiate their energy transition pathways from those of continental Europe. We recommend to systematically recognise the specificities of Outermost Regions in EU legislations, as recognised under Article 349 TFEU. The goal is ensure a proportional pathway towards energy affordability and sustainability for these regions. Our concrete proposals concern renewable energy policy (e.g RED III) and GHG emission targets.
Read full response

Response to Taxonomy Delegated Acts – amendments to make reporting simpler and more cost-effective for companies

26 Mar 2025

Albioma is an independent renewable energy that primarily operates in French overseas territories with a core expertise in biomass electricity generation. Using sugar residues, particularly bagasse, we produce 40% of the electricity consumed in the Réunion island, 30% in Guadeloupe, and 20% in Martinique, serving the equivalent energy needs of 1 million people. We have significantly reduced fossil fuel dependency in the French Outermost Regions (ORs) and have improved the competitiveness of the sugar industry, which is central to the economies of these islands. The classification of energy transition projects in the EU taxonomy will significantly impact financing in the Overseas Territories, where funding is already limited. Although the taxonomy is not binding for investors, it will serve as a key reference for defining renewable energy projects, heavily influencing the financing of biomass electricity projects in these regions. The current version of the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act imposes unrealistic thresholds that threatens investment in the substitution of coal by biomass in power plants in the French ORs. In Section 4.8 of the Annex I of the Climate Delegated Act, (EU) 2021/2139, paragraph 2 of the technical screening criteria, electricity generation from bioenergy can only qualify for substantial contribution to climate change mitigation if the energy efficiency levels are met and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission savings are at least 80%. Indeed, both geographical and structural constraints render the energy efficiency levels and the 80% emissions target impossible to achieve in ORs. Tropical climates reduce plant efficiency due to altered thermodynamical cycles, and heat recovery is not feasible as there is no local heating demand. Additionally, Albioma must import biomass - mainly wood pellets from the US, Canada, Vietnam, and Australia - due to the limited availability of local biomass in ORs. Long-distance transport dramatically restricts GHG reductions. You will find in Annex a more detailed description of these technical limitations. We believe this annex is important given that the taxonomy is evidence-based. In light of this context, we would like to propose a technical revision of the Taxonomy Delegated Act. Albioma recommends that the revision of the Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act amends the following for energy generated from biomass in the Outermost Regions: Regarding the criteria for the energy efficiency of electricity production installations: exemption Regarding the criteria for avoided GHG emissions: at least 60% of GHG emissions avoided compared to the reference fossil fuel value established by the RED II Directive
Read full response

Meeting with Mirka Janda (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto)

20 Mar 2025 · Alignment between the EU ETS MRR and the RED III

Meeting with Sandro Gozi (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Nov 2024 · Energy sector in Outermost Regions

Meeting with Rody Tolassy (Member of the European Parliament)

17 Oct 2024 · L'énergie dans les territoires ultramarins

Meeting with Sandro Gozi (Member of the European Parliament)

2 Oct 2024 · Energy in the Outermost regions

Meeting with Younous Omarjee (Member of the European Parliament)

27 Sept 2024 · Energies renouvelables dans les outremers

Meeting with Nicolas Bay (Member of the European Parliament)

19 Sept 2024 · L'avenir de l'énergie solaire en Europe.

Meeting with Christophe Grudler (Member of the European Parliament) and ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE and Euroheat and Power

18 Sept 2024 · Politique énergétique européenne

Response to Amendment of the EU ETS Monitoring and Reporting Regulation (MRR) in response to the ETS revision/Fit For 55 (Batch 2)

29 Jul 2024

Albioma is an independent renewable energy company with most of its operations in the French overseas territories, including Reunion Island, Mayotte, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Mauritius. Our power plants currently provide up to 50% of the electricity needs of the territories in which they operate. While Albioma welcomes the revision of the EU ETS Implementing Regulation 2018/2066 (MRR), we would like to draw your attention to the inconsistency of the draft act with the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 (RED) and its potential implications on the decarbonisation of the EU outermost regions as well as their energy security. Please see our suggested amendment and justification attached.
Read full response

Meeting with Dominique Bilde (Member of the European Parliament)

28 Nov 2023 · L'approvisionnement électrique de La réunion face aux normes européennes

Response to Amendment of the EU ETS Monitoring and Reporting Regulation (MRR) in response to the ETS revision/Fit For 55

23 Aug 2023

Albioma is an independent renewable energy company with most of its operations in the French overseas territories, including Reunion Island, Mayotte, Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guiana, and Mauritius. Our power plants currently provide up to 50% of the electricity needs of the territories in which they operate. While Albioma welcomes the initiative to update the EU ETS Implementing Regulation 2018/2066 (MRR), we would like to draw your attention to the inconsistency of the draft act with the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 (RED) and its potential implications on the decarbonisation of the EU outermost regions as well as their energy security. For biomass to have a carbon emission factor of zero, it must comply with the sustainability and greenhouse gas emission-saving criteria under RED. Biomass installations located in the French outermost regions will be structurally unable to comply with the criteria strengthened by the 2023 revision of RED. However, Article 29 §13 of RED recognises the unique circumstances of bioenergy installations located in the EU outermost regions and provides a derogation regime allowing Member States to adopt different sustainability and greenhouse gas emission-saving criteria for biomass used in such installations to be RED compliant. The 2023 revision of EU ETS Directive specifies that under Article 14(1), implementing acts concerning the detailed arrangements for the monitoring and reporting of emissions shall provide for the application of the sustainability and greenhouse gas emission-saving criteria for the use of biomass established by Directive (EU) 2018/2001, with any necessary adjustments for application under this Directive, in order for such biomass to be zero-rated. However, the proposed draft revision of the MRR overlooks the derogation provided in Article 29 §13 of RED. Indeed, the current MRR draft specifies the emission factor of biomass as zero (Article 38 §2 and §5), as long as it complies with the sustainability and greenhouse gas emission-saving criteria outlined in §2 to §7 and §10 of Article 29 of RED, but not in case biomass is used in an outermost region and complies with the criteria adopted pursuant to Article 29 §13. Consequently, biomass used in outermost regions would not be considered zero-emission in the MRR and the EU-ETS in spite of being compliant with RED. Without the necessary adjustments and the inclusion of the outermost regions derogation under RED into the MRR, biomass plants located in these territories face the risk of being classified as fossil fuel installations, making them subject to the EU ETS and requiring the purchase of emission allowances for their operations. This would not only impact the business model of bioenergy producers locally but also jeopardise the energy security of these territories. To address these concerns, Albioma calls upon EU policymakers to align the proposed MRR with the RED derogation under Article 29 §13. This would enable greater policy coherence between the two pieces of legislation while preserving the economic viability of biomass installations. To this end, we have attached a proposed amendment which will ensure clean, reliable, and affordable energy for the outermost regions while being in line with Article 349 of the TFEU requiring the consideration of their specificities.
Read full response

Meeting with Valérie Hayer (Member of the European Parliament)

19 Jul 2023 · Fonds européens dans les Outre-Mers

Meeting with Max Orville (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Jul 2022 · Directive sur les énergies renouvelables RED III

Meeting with Wioletta Dunin-Majewska (Cabinet of Commissioner Elisa Ferreira)

20 Jul 2022 · Energy transition in French outermost regions.

Meeting with Barbara Glowacka (Cabinet of Commissioner Kadri Simson)

3 May 2022 · To exchange views on considerations regarding biomass energy under the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive.

Response to Revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (EU) 2018/2001

18 Nov 2021

Acteur incontournable de la transition énergétique dans les régions ultrapériphériques (RUP), Albioma souhaite souligner le rôle clé de la bioénergie dans la transition vers une économie bas carbone, en particulier dans les RUP, et rappeler la nécessité d’un encadrement réglementaire permettant à la fois de garantir la durabilité de la ressource en biomasse et de donner aux opérateurs industriels la visibilité et la stabilité nécessaire à la réalisation de leurs investissements. Si Albioma salue l’ambition de la nouvelle proposition législative de la Commission pour contribuer à atteindre l’objectif européen de réduction des émissions de GES d’au moins 55% d’ici à 2030, plusieurs dispositions de la proposition de révision de la Directive RED II compromettent la transition énergétique des RUP françaises engagée depuis 2015 et caractérisée par la substitution progressive du charbon par de la biomasse : - L’extension des critères d’émissions de GES évitées aux installations mises en service avant 2021 mettrait en péril le fonctionnement de certaines installations déjà financées et opérationnelles, et entraînerait le maintien de l’utilisation du charbon dans ces territoires et/ou mettrait en péril leur sécurité d’approvisionnement en électricité ; - L’abaissement du seuil d’application des critères d’émissions de GES évitées de 20 MWth à 5 MWth entraverait le développement de projets indispensable à la transition énergétique des RUP françaises faisant face à des contraintes structurelles ne permettant pas d’atteindre les performances attendues pour des centrales électriques situées en Europe continentale ; - La suppression de l’octroi de nouvelles aides pour les installations de production d’électricité à partir de biomasse empêcherait la transition énergétique des RUP dans lesquelles la biomasse est la seule alternative renouvelable aux énergies fossiles (avec l’hydraulique, mais dont le potentiel est saturé) pour la production d’électricité non intermittente. Il est par ailleurs indispensable que la proposition de directive révisée clarifie le fait que les aides octroyées avant le 31 décembre 2026 ne seront pas remises en cause. Une telle remise en question, outre son incompatibilité avec l’article 6 de la Directive relatif à la stabilité des aides financières, mettrait en péril la sécurité d’approvisionnement électrique des RUP françaises (en particulier de La Réunion, de la Guadeloupe et de la Martinique).
Read full response