Several biodiversity NGOs have asked the government to once again review the location of a wind farm planned more than 35 km off the island of Oléron (Charente-Maritime), concerned about the conservation of birds. , in a letter made public on Monday.
These eight associations ask him to “withdraw” his decision, taken in July, to launch this so-called “South Atlantic” park, and “to consider setting up further offshore, outside of any marine protected area and migration routes”. .
The park would be in the middle of migration routes of bird species
“If you decide despite everything not to withdraw this decision, our associations reserve the right to contest your refusal before the administrative judge”, write the Association for the Protection of Wild Animals, the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), the National Society for the Protection of Nature, as well as other national and local NGOs.
At the end of July, the government had announced the remoteness of the project compared to its initial version, so as not to establish it in a marine natural park.
But the new area remains at the heart of a special protection area, which aims to conserve wild bird species and “considered as a functional unit of high importance for sea and coastal birds on the Atlantic coast”, underline the associations. “It intercepts international north-south migration routes,” they insist.
1,000 MW capacity
The project provides for the construction of a wind farm on the seabed, with a capacity of around 1,000 megawatts (MW), with commissioning scheduled for the early 2030s. It could be supplemented by a second wind farm. with floating or standing wind turbines.
The associations for their part defend the use of floating wind power from the first project, because this technology would make it possible to install wind turbines further offshore.
France lags behind its neighbors in the renewable energy boom, with only one offshore wind farm recently installed and due to come into full service by the end of 2022, off Saint-Nazaire.