It is a French paradox which is not to the taste of Barbara Pompili. “While more than
5,000 wind turbines at sea are now connected in Europe, there is simply not a single one running in France, even though we have the second largest offshore wind farm in Europe ”, pointed out the Minister for Ecological Transition, this Monday, during a trip to Dunkirk. She came to announce the decision, unsurprisingly, to pursue the
offshore wind farm off the city.
We are talking about 46 wind turbines, 225 to 300 meters high, spread over 50 km² and located about ten km from the coast. Commissioning is expected in 2027, which would make it the seventh wind farm off the French coast.
Several voices were expressed against during the public debate at the end of last year. Of the Bird Protection League (LPO) to the collective of inhabitants
“Wind up”, including the Belgian government concerned, among other things, by the visual impact that this wind farm would have near its coasts. Not enough to flex Barbara Pompili, who swept the proposal for a local referendum, which political parties demanded. The minister did not bother with the conditional on Monday. “This new offshore wind farm will produce renewable energy for nearly a million French people”.
This determination does not apply only to Dunkirk, but to all the offshore wind farms currently in the pipeline, assured Barbara Pompilli, just after having condemned the recent demonstrations of force by fishermen who disrupted the start of construction of the
wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc.
Ten gigawatts of offshore wind turbines in 2035
For the government, offshore wind power is vital, as much to massify the production of renewable energies in France as to better balance our electricity production mix, which today depends 70% on nuclear power. The Multi-Year Energy Program (PPE), the roadmap in this area, thus provides for reaching, for offshore wind power, between 5.2 and 6.2 gigawatts (GW) of installed power at the horizon 2028, and 10 in 2035. “That is the equivalent of ten nuclear reactors”, indicates Régis Boigegrain, Director of Maritime Affairs at
Electricity transmission network (RTE), responsible for connecting future offshore wind farms to land.
A first step towards this goal of 10 gigawatts will be taken next year, with the commissioning of the Saint-Nazaire wind farm (80 wind turbines). “Will follow Saint-Brieuc (62 wind turbines) and
Fecamp (71) in 2023, then
Courseulles-sur-Mer (64), in Calvados, in 2024 ”, Régis Boigegrain list.
For these four parks, we are on installed wind power, the wind turbines being fixed to the seabed. This will also be the case for the parks of Yeu-Noirmoutier, in Vendee,
Dieppe-Le Tréport, in Seine-Maritime, and therefore Dunkirk, all three in the development phase and scheduled to arrive before 2027. In total, they will add 170 wind turbines off our coasts.
Excessively caricatured debates in France?
Because laid down, these parks are located where the sea is shallowest. And therefore close to the coast. This raises the question of their societal acceptability. The fears relate to the drop in the real estate value of dwellings and the tourist attractiveness of the regions which will have them in their horizon, but also on the impacts that these parks could have on marine biodiversity or on the cohabitation of these facilities with fishing activities.
Jean-David Abel, vice-president of France Nature Environment (FNE), invites you to take a step back. “There are already 2,300 offshore wind turbines connected in Great Britain, 1,500 in Germany, 559 in Denmark…, he begins. However, we cannot say that all these countries do not care about their fishermen, their landscapes and their marine biodiversity. “” In the debate in France, there are many positions instrumentalised, untruths that circulate, he continues. And while there are certainly oppositions, the majority of the population remains in favor of these offshore wind farm projects,
including in Brittany or in Normandy. “
Fear of hasty projects?
At the FNE, we do not say we are opposed to offshore wind power, because it is favorable to the development of renewable energies. “This does not mean that we give our approval to all the projects under study, insists Jean-David Abel. We will oppose those which are badly located, with risks of impacts for biodiversity or which do not take sufficient account of fishing issues. »The speech is just as nuanced in National Maritime Fisheries Committee (CNPMEM). “There are very different sensitivities within the profession, and sailors are citizens like any other, many ready to admit that the energy transition must be started”, indicates Jean-Luc Hall, the managing director.
The recent dispute in the bay of Saint-Brieuc would then start above all from a non-consideration of the fishermen in the conduct of the project. “There has been no study on the effects of wind turbine noise on fish species, nor any consultation with fishermen around the work schedule so that they impact the fishing activity as little as possible,” explains Jean. -Luc Hall. The project leader did not keep his commitments, so much so that we have the feeling that he arrives with his big hooves. Result: many fishermen, who were not opposed to the project at the start, are now. “
This precipitation, the National Fisheries Committee fears to find it on other sites in the future. Because France intends to move forward at a rapid pace on offshore wind power. In addition to the seven wind farms in the construction or development phase, new calls for projects have been added, and “the scenarios vary between 25 and 65 gigawatts of offshore wind turbines. in 2050 off the mainland, ”recalls Régis Boigegrain.
The future more in floating wind?
To achieve this, the future is undoubtedly more in floating wind power. With this advantage of being able to move away from the coast, since the wind turbines are this time mounted on a platform and not fixed to the seabed. “We can thus seek stronger and more stable offshore winds and aim for increased electricity production,” explains Régis Boigegrain. This remoteness could also promote the societal acceptability of these parks. If not because they are no longer visible from the coast. “Offshore, it will undoubtedly be easier to find areas that are little or not exploited by fishermen,” adds Jean-Luc Hall. “And floating wind power has potentially less impact on the seabed,” adds Jean-David Abel.
Four floating wind farm pilot projects are currently in the development phase in France. Three in the Mediterranean (
Faraman,
Gruissan,
Leucate), and a last one in Brittany, off
the island of Groix and Belle-Ile. The next phase has just been launched with a first call for tenders, launched on May 5, for a floating park still off the island of Groix and Belle-Ile.
There remains a major brake with floating wind power: that of the costs of connecting platforms to the mainland. “It increases mechanically the further we move away from our coasts,” recalls Régis Boigegrain.