We do not transform the energy of the wind without wind turbines, nor that of the sun without photovoltaic panels (tribune) Comments

Actions against wind power continues to grow.Considered as unsightly, noisy and harmful to birds, wind turbines are shunned.Likewise, photovoltaic solar projects are sometimes deemed to constitute conflicts of potentially agricultural land use.However, wind and solar are solutions to global warming.

Degraded or burned materials, legal actions, forums and speeches of local or national elected officials, anti-election operations are multiplying.Qualified by some unsightly, noisy and harmful to flying fauna, blades and high white masts overlooking our campaigns are not unanimous.A paradoxical situation with regard to the climate emergency which requires resorting renewable energies and without emission of CO2.

What to think of these criticisms?Are they justified?Do wind farms distort the landscapes and built heritage as much as their detractors clamable?Are wind turbines merciless for avian fauna?Is the noise caused by the mechanics of nacelles and blades unbearable?

Admittedly, with sizes 100 to 200 meters high, wind turbines do not go unnoticed.This is why, no wind turbine operator would venture to try to invest the large landscaping or heritage sites.But, if all the sites and landscapes of our country are a priori worthy of interest, is it thoughtable to stop any industrial activity and put France under bell?

And what about high -voltage power lines, countless commercial areas, roundabouts every kilometers, high -speed railways or highways?Today no one is moved by the presence of these elements in our cities and our countryside or notes them.

Present for decades in our landscapes, they have entered our collective unconscious.It is therefore a safe bet that it will be the same for wind turbines in a few years.

Technological developments to reduce environmental impacts

Today the majority of the metropolitan territory is almost inaccessible to wind power plants or photovoltaic due to the protective zoning set up, most often rightly, by the public authorities: national or regional parks, large classified sites, World Heritage UNESCO, Natura 2000.

But the most extremist opponents would like to extend these protective measures to the whole of France on the grounds of the unique character of each landscape surrounding a possible area of establishment of a wind or solar power plant. Accusées de nuisances sonores par leurs détracteurs, les éoliennes sont-elles si bruyantes ? Si ce reproche a pu être justifié dans certains cas et sur certains sites, il y a quelques années, de nombreux travaux de R&D ont été entrepris pour réduire le bruit à 55 dB au pied d’une éolienne, soit un seuil en deçà des 85 dB considérés comme nocifs pour la santé.

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As for the impact of wind turbines on avian fauna, there again many technological innovations such as techniques of distance from birds and bats or machines stop systems during breeding or migration species have migratory species havebeen put in place to reduce harmful effects.

The most serious studies have also made it possible to put avian mortality due to rotors compared to the dangers of power lines or collisions with the facades of high -rise buildings.

Wind turbines: clean energy par excellence

Beyond all these arguments, it is an undeniable one: wind power ensures environmentally friendly energy.At the time of global warming, consuming non -fossil energies to reduce CO2 discharges has become an imperative.

And if nuclear is a decarbon energy, the power stations today undergo the effects of global warming via the water shortage.This is how in 2019 and 2020, EDF was forced to stop one of the two reactors of the Golfech nuclear power plant in Occitania due to drought.In this context, and faced with an energy consumption that does not weaken, the energy mix is essential.

And whatever the source, wind or solar, the two solutions require spaces.It is therefore time for France to assume the environmental cost of these facilities, if it wants to reconcile the fight against global warming and the satisfaction of energy needs.Because no one is ready to undergo interruptions of electricity supply.

Photovoltaic solar, next target?

If the strong, unjustified, total opposition to wind turbines has been known for several years, and has experienced a strong acceleration for a few months, complacently relayed by certain media, the photovoltaic power plants have escaped the general vindicte so far.

The very low height of solar panels placed on the ground, which makes their landscaping integration, the total absence of noise or the slightest danger for fauna, seemed to guarantee their local acceptability.But today the opponents are imaginative: for lack of being able to attack the height of the tables supporting the panels, it is the occupied area which is deemed intolerable, including in areas or the movements of land mask the installations.

Another argument is the occupation of land that could be dedicated to agriculture and it does not matter that these land has most often been fallow for decades without any prospect of recovery.

What can we conclude?

The development of renewable energies in France and in the world therefore seems to be characterized by the paradox proper to the number of technological and industrial changes: if the principle and the merits of decarbonized energies, producing electric MWH at market prices and generatingNo waste, seems admitted by our fellow citizens, a radical and multi-factorial opposition, carried by a minority of people, including leading public decision-makers, today prevents the achievement of the objectives set by the legislator.

The public authorities are also faced with violent forms of dispute of projects of general interest, whatever they are.Will the concept of "zone to defend" famous for Notre-Dame des Landes will the rule for each wind or solar project tomorrow?