After seven years of planning, including a two-year procurement process, the French waterways agency this month committed funds for a 30-year (+5) DBFOM concession to replace 29 obsolete dams with automated dams equipped with fishways to promote ecological goals.

Also part of the package, three more dams will be retrofitted with hydroelectric plants whose federally subsidized revenues will flow to the concession company under a 20-year power purchase agreement with Electricité de France.