Facteurs humains et sociaux de réussite des projets de méthanisation territoriale

Résumé En

Human and social success factors for territorial biogas projects Territorial biogas projects face technical and economic difficulties, as well as human and social constraints, within the project group or with neighbors and partners. To improve understanding of these human factors, nine territorial biogas projects in the regions of Brittany and Pays de la Loire (France) were analyzed. Interviews were performed with 74 persons involved directly or indirectly in such projects. Administrative and technical documents, as well as press articles, were analyzed. From a social viewpoint, the success of biogas projects relies greatly on the ability of farmers to build and develop trust-based relationships with a variety of actors belonging to various social universes. First, a territorial biogas project requires a group of farmers collaborating and working together, which involves practice with group work and management. Second, local acceptance of the project implies that the local population perceives the project leaders as people they can trust, and the project itself as something they will benefit from, such as obtaining heat for public facilities or opportunities for local employment, etc. Finally, most biogas partners belong to the industrial sector and expect farmers to act as business managers in terms of planning, organization, and management skills. Ultimately, such projects require farmers to be able to collaborate with a wide range of partners and use the social codes of each one.