Illustration of an offshore wind turbine. Here, off Le Croisic, in Brittany. – Sébastien Salom Gomis / SIPA
- Construction work on the wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc is due to start on Monday.
- The fishermen strongly contest this project, believing that it will “destroy the natural heritage and the economic activities of the bay of Saint-Brieuc”.
- They say they are ready for confrontation if the state does not abandon its project.
The atmosphere promises to be tense in the coming days in the bay of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor) with the start from Monday of construction work on the offshore wind farm which is hotly contested by fishermen. The latter are ready for confrontation while the ships of the French Navy have been deployed to the area to ensure safety at sea. “The State is playing with fire,” said Alain Coudray, president of the Coastal Fisheries Committee. d’Armor, adding that this project is “a declaration of war” on fishing professionals.
In a letter addressed to the government, Alain Coudray accuses the Ministers of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili and of the Sea Annick Girardin of minimizing the impact of the project. The Fisheries Committee also denounces the words of Barbara Pompili who assured that the project will be “without effect” for fish species, “Saint-Jacques, sea almond, prairie, lobster or cuttlefish, so even that the scientists who carried out these studies shed light on the partial knowledge on these subjects ”.
The commissioning of the 62 wind farm scheduled for the end of 2023
“The area of the park represents the equivalent of the second largest deposit of scallops in Brittany,” said the committee. “In this story, neither the climate, nor the territory, and even less the profession and the marine biodiversity of the bay of Saint-Brieuc are not going to be winners,” he adds. The fishermen “will not let you destroy the natural heritage and the economic activities of the bay of Saint-Brieuc”, warns the Fisheries Committee, which asks the State to “cancel this project”. Claiming to be open to dialogue, he believes “it is not too late to avoid this war”.
With a capacity of 496 Megawatts with 62 wind turbines over 200 meters high and 30 to 42 meters underwater, the park is supposed to produce 1,820 Gigawatts per year, the equivalent, according to its promoter, of annual electricity consumption of 835,000 inhabitants. Its commissioning is scheduled for the end of 2023.