Bouchain power station is a 585 MW coal power station in Nord, France. It is operated by Electricité de France SA [100%]. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 732k homes (estimated). It ranks #38 of 2,216 France power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1970, it is around 56 years old — an older, legacy facility. In context, coal supplies about 0.3% of France's electricity; the national grid averages 41 gCO₂/kWh (94.9% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id GEM_coa_bouchain_franc.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM · 2026 · L100000101860; fuel: GEM GCPT
At 585 MW, Bouchain power station is around the median coal plant in France (540 MW). Technically it is described as subcritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Electricité de France SA [100%].
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen Cfb) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 50.3°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 18% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 59/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a moderately corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C3 — Medium), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #5 largest coal power plant of 14 in France by capacity.
France has 14 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 7,595 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 50.297213, 3.3164 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Bouchain power station is a 585 MW coal power plant in Nord, France, commissioned in 1970.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 732,085 homes (estimated).
Bouchain power station is operated by Electricité de France SA [100%].
