Titre : [FORTHCOMING] From Emile Huchet to Emil’hy: the difficult art of reconciling transitions in a post-industrial context 

Auteurs : Dorian MAILLARD
, Michel DESHAIES,  

Revue : Technology and Innovation 

Numéro : Forthcoming papers 

Volume :  

Date : 2025/06/16 

DOI : TBA 

ISSN : 2399-8571 

Résumé : Commissioned during the post-war reconstruction period, Emile Huchet was one of France’s main coal-fired power plants and underwent continuous modernization until the 1990s. At the end of Moselle’s coal mining operations (2004), the site entered a new phase marked by the privatization, deterritorialization, and diversification (into gas) of its activity, before being impacted by the acceleration of the energy transition and the announcement of the closure of the country’s last coal-fired power plants (2017). Since then, a public support scheme has been introduced to assist affected workers and foster the emergence of new substitute industrial activities, all sharing the common goal of reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions. This strategy of “decarbonized reindustrialization” thus positions the decarbonization of Emile Huchet as a lever for the site’s industrial (re)conversion and for the broader redevelopment of the Lorraine coal basin. Studying the trajectory of the Emile Huchet plant therefore provides a valuable opportunity to place this new decarbonization-driven recovery cycle within the longer historical reconfiguration of structural redevelopment dynamics in post-mining and post-industrial territories and, thus, to identify the nature of the current obstacles to the implementation of these associated objectives of industrial decarbonization and (re)conversion. 

Éditeur : ISTE OpenScience