Centrale de Bouchain

June 2025 | France | Demolition Ongoing

The Centrale de Bouchain is a decommissioned coal fired power station lying in the countryside, halfway between the city of Cambrai and the town of Valenciennes, in the northern part of France. It has been on my radar for a few years now.

Technical Details

Commission Date: 1970.

Decommission Date: 2015.

Capacity: 500MW.

Cooling Towers: a single reinforeced concrete 125 meter cooling tower.

Chimney: 162 meter single flue stack.

Fuel Type(s): coal.

Control System: hard desk analogue controls.

Boiler Manufacturer: Stein & Roubaix.

Turbine Generator Manufacturer: Alsthom.

OCGT Plant: one 85MW open cycle generator.

Architect: Électricité de France.

Status: demolition underway.

History:

Planning for Bouchain began in the early 1960s under plans by French state-owned company Électricité de France and construction started in 1967. The building consisted of two 250MW coal fired units. The power station was commissioned in 1970, with a generation capacity of 580MW. The Centrale de Bouchain is the sister station of the Centrale de La Maxe near the city of Metz in the Grand-Est region.

In 1975, the power station was provided with a single experimental OCGT turbine which powered an 85MW generator developed as a joint venture by Alsthom of Belfort and General Electric of the USA. A handful of these types were built, notably one for the Brennilis Nuclear Power Station in the Finistere region of Brittany in France.

On the 30th of August 1970, one of the units was stopped as a crack had been spotted in the concrete cooling tower. Repairs were undertaken and the unit was restarted on the 24th of October 1970. However, on the 20th of November, less than a month later, the cooling tower abruptly collapsed. A temporary canvas cooling tower suspended from a steel lattice was built. The cooling tower was 75 meters high.

This was in use until a new one could be built. A replacement cooling tower was finally completed in 1991 and the canvas tower was demolished shortly after. In 1995, unit 2 was closed and decommissioned with the precipitators demolished.

Right: the collapsed cooling tower.

Every year, the power station burned 100,000 tons of coal which was sourced from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais coalfield. The surrounding area around the power station is littered with spoil tips for miles around – standing on the roof they are very evident! The power station burned French coal until 2005 and then afterwards, given the closure and decimation of the mining industry in the area, the power station’s coal was sourced from Poland and Russia.

Left: the temporary canvas cooling tower.

In 2014, it was announced that the last unit of Bouchain Power Station was to close. Unit 1 of Bouchain Power Station ceased generating and closed in April of 2015 marking the end of generation after 45 years of operation. Demolition has been ongoing since Autumn 2015 in a very slow manner.

In 2012, construction started on a new combined cycle gas turbine power station on a site adjacent to the old coal fired power station. It has a capacity of 580MW, like the original power station, and was commissioned in 2016. It has a turbo-generator designed by General Electric and built in the Belfort works in Belgium.

The Explore:

I’d been wanting to explore Bouchain for quite a while, and I had the opportunity to do so in June of 2025. At this point, the coal handling plant and last remaining precipitator had been demolished and work to dismantle the chimney had started. Unusually, the chimney is being picked apart using a high reach crane.

Access on site was slightly awkward as it is surrounded by water channels on most sides with the other sides being covered by cameras and an active combined cycle gas turbine power station. However, I made my way on site quickly enough and began my journey towards the power station, slightly apprehensive after seeing signs stating that trespassers would be fined €15,000 and possibly jailed. My usual recipe is to go through the bushes to stay in cover. Big. Bloody. Mistake. Fighting my way through nettles, brambles, bindweed, hawthorn and other sorts of horrible spiky plants was not fun and I emerged the other side scratched to hell and with thorns and splinters everywhere. It was horrendous.

I’d arrived on a Friday evening and the demolition workers were in the process of clearing up for the weekend before leaving. An hour at chilling in a bush later, I was making my way through the last areas before emerging at the base of the power station. I got in and began snapping away. My plan was to get as much as I could covered with the remaining three hours of daylight and then sleep through the night somewhere. I bedded down at dark in a side room off the control room and got a solid seven hours of sleep.

The morning after, I got up at 5:30, made my way to the top of the boiler house and worked my way downwards. I covered the building pretty quickly and had a good time. The power station was similar in design to La Maxe near Metz, with the turbines designed by the same company. The power station was a lot more decayed than La Maxe and in worse condition with water ingress everywhere. I found it to be quite hard to photograph as it was pitch black in many areas.

I finished up photographing and then made my way out in the mid morning. Another power station ticked off! Enjoy the photographs.

Externals:

Boiler House:

Bunker Bay:

Turbine Hall:

Control Room: