THE ‘ANARCHIC development’ of wind turbines in France has to be stopped, a report to MPs claims.
France has pledged to put up an extra 6,000 turbines in addition to its 2,600 existing ones to meet renewable energy pledges by 2020.
However opposition is growing, with a federation Vent de Colère now representing more than 500 regional associations. They say the south-west is among areas seeing rising interest from developers.
“Languedoc-Roussillon has a huge amount of turbines and they’re looking to move west,” said its president, Alain Bruguier. Wind union France Energie Eolienne, says turbines will continue to be built in large numbers in the north-west (including Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Centre and parts of Normandy), the north and east, and in the south from Marseille to Toulouse.
While they say the Midi-Pyrénées is popular (with around 300 now in the Aveyron alone), the extreme south-west is not favoured as it is sheltered from wind by the Pyrénées.
France is the EU’s fourth largest wind power producer but has the second greatest potential due to its coastline. It has pledged to boost current production five times over by 2020, with one quarter of this coming from the sea.
A report to parliament by MP Patrick Ollier has proposed tougher planning rules for windfarms although opponents say it would do little to reduce problems like noise, impact on scenery and house prices. A house less than 3km from turbines is “unsellable,” Mr Bruguier claims.
Plans for minimum power levels for windfarms (meant to stop sprawl) could make things worse, he said, and the introduction of regional turbine plans could make it harder to oppose schemes within these areas.
Mr Bruguier said: “Often people know nothing about plans until the last minute – France is a banana republic in planning terms.
“The decision to have turbines comes down to councillors – who are often farmers who might benefit from renting land for turbines.
“They are meant to declare an interest but usually don’t. Councils often argue income from business tax will help them balance the budget.”
He added: “It can take two or three years to stop a project and a person alone won’t succeed.”
Britons are among Vent de Colère’s strongest supporters, he added.
According to Mr Bruguier, it will be difficult to find off-shore sites (only one is approved) as there is opposition in the Mediterranean and Atlantic and in the Channel it could disrupt shipping and fishing. He said hydro-electricity was better as it gave guaranteed energy.
Turbines only worked a fifth of the time on average, he said. Benoît Praderie, a spokesman for Planète Eolienne, whose member associations support local windfarm schemes, said surveys showed 80-90% of the French back wind power. However opponents are more vociferous.
The “nimby” effect of wind projects was the same for all large constructions, he said.
Turbines were simply set up where there is a good supply of wind.
Opinions on appearance were subjective – most schoolchildren find them delightful, he added.
The turbines complement other green power, with more wind in winter and more sun and biomass in summer. A national turbine network means the wind is always blowing somewhere.
“If you think of the energy problems we will have in the future, you realise we should build a maximum number of turbines wherever there is wind but not in any old place, without thought.”
He added: “It takes seven years to develop a windfarm, with the Ollier report ideas it would take nine. It only takes six to build a nuclear power station.”
France Energie Eolienne president Nicolas Wolff opposes the proposed regional windfarm plans as they would reduce flexibility, ban windfarms outside them and and delays projects.
Proposed minimum power requirements would wreck many early-stage plans. “We’d lose half the current projects being prepared.”
He added: “ICPE listing [see box] is for polluting installations, whereas turbines are clean, renewable energy.
“Meeting the 2020 objectives would create 50,000 jobs on top of 10,000 now.”
The president of estate agents’ body Fnaim for the Aude (one of the areas with the most turbines) said he saw no impact on house prices and green-minded buyers may even see them as a plus. Planners rarely allowed turbines within a few kilometres of homes but where they had he was not aware of problems with noise.
