Pollution was observed on the Saint-Brieuc bay wind project. – Navy
The news is rather reassuring. According to the Maritime Prefecture of the Atlantic, the pollution that occurred Monday morning on the wind farm site offshore of the bay of Saint-Brieuc (Côtes d’Armor) seems to disperse “naturally”. According to the authorities, “the risk of land pollution is receding”, even if “the vigilance and surveillance of the authorities remain essential”.
On Monday, a large slick of hydraulic oil was identified around the construction vessel offshore Aeolus, in charge of the highly contested wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc. A customs survey confirmed the pollution. This Tuesday, a Falcon 50 aircraft from the French Navy flew over the area for several hours. “The surface iridescence, clearly visible yesterday, has now completely disappeared”. She would be invisible both from the sky and from the three boats dispatched to the scene. According to the maritime prefecture, this dilution phenomenon is explained “by the great dispersal capacity of the oil with regard to the quantity discharged”. According to the company Ailes Marines which manages the site, the rejected material would be “a fluid specially designed and developed for work at sea which is biodegradable”.
Asked to explain itself by the Minister of Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili, the Iberdrola company mentioned “a technical problem” encountered by the ship during a second series of drilling. This oil leak, estimated at 100 liters, is considered to be of significant magnitude by the authorities. The Aeolus team will have to wait for the results of the analyzes before leaving the bay of Saint-Brieuc to carry out its repairs.
“The bay of Saint-Brieuc is not an open-air laboratory”
Already highly contested especially by fishermen, the wind project was the subject of strong criticism from its detractors on Tuesday. “The bay of Saint-Brieuc is not an open-air laboratory where industrialists come to test tools and pollute the marine environment”, underlines the departmental fisheries committee of Côtes-d’Armor, which will file a complaint.
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.