12/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - French aid for construction of geothermal boiler approved. On Wednesday 12 January, the European Commission gave authorisation to France to provide a €25.3 million grant for the construction of a heat boiler using renewable geothermal energy in the Alsace region. The aid will be granted to a joint-venture between Roquette Frères, Electricité de Strasbourg and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations. The joint-venture will sell the produced geothermal heat to the industrial site operated by Roquette Frères in Beinheim, enabling the company to partly replace its existing gas-fired heating boilers. The Commission concluded that the aid was in line with EU state aid rules, “because on balance, the positive effects (Ed: from the environmental point of view) of the measure outweigh the potential distortions of competition and of trade between member states”. (Com-O.L./transl.rt)