Change of government, change of tone. And not necessarily in the sense imagined by some. In an interview with AFP on Friday, May 27, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who gave up her place as Minister of Industry to become Minister of Energy Transition, announced that the deployment of onshore wind power would not be accelerated. , unlike other renewable energies.
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In a speech in Belfort, in February, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, had already hinted at this, explaining that the objectives set in 2020 for 2030 aimed at doubling capacities, would only be finally achieved in… 2050. At the end of December 2021, the installed base in France had a capacity of 18.8 GW.
Seven years on average to develop a wind farm
On the eve of the legislative elections, the government therefore takes note of the growing opposition encountered on the ground. “We must not tell stories by saying that French society is ready to deploy [l’éolien] twice, three times faster », explains Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
It takes an average of seven years to develop a park, and more than half of the permits are disputed, despite measures taken to curb the ardor of opponents. In 2018, the government decided to remove a level of jurisdiction to file appeals, now dealt with directly in the court of appeal.
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“We observe a great reluctance in many prefectures. Even if some are more favorable than others to wind power, the trend is clearly towards tightening and slowing down procedures,” underlines one of the managers of France energie éolienne (FEE), the trade union of the sector, by denouncing “lots of misinformation”. As a result, more than 10 GW of projects are currently awaiting a green light.
In 2021, only 1.2 GW was installed, i.e. one of the lowest levels in recent years, if we exclude the Covid parenthesis of 2020. Wind power produced only 36.8 TWh, i.e. a drop of 7.2% over one year, even though the connected power was up by 6.8%, due to a lack of wind. It covered 7.8% of metropolitan electricity consumption.
A subsidy for opponents
Opposition to wind turbines had been one of the themes of the presidential campaign. It is still up to date. The Hauts-de-France regional council, led by Xavier Bertrand, decided on May 19 to allocate a grant of €170,000 over three years to the Stop éoliennes Hauts-de-France federation, chaired by Bénédicte Leclerc de Hautecloque-Coste, located in the Somme.
Marshal Leclerc’s granddaughter highlights “the defense of landscapes in the face of the concretization of the countryside”. For its part, the regional executive explains that it has taken its part in the development of wind power in France, by concentrating a quarter of the machines, and does not want more. The objective of the subsidy, the first of its kind in France and denounced by the left and environmentalists, is to help local residents defend themselves against new projects.
Increased protest in Germany
France is not an isolated case in terms of opposition to wind turbines. In Germany, where 30,000 machines have already been installed on land (against 9,000 in France) for a capacity of 56 GW, the tone is also rising. The park increased by only 1.7 GW in 2021, while the objective of the new coalition is to reach 100 and 130 GW in 2030, covering 2% of the total surface of the country.
But more and more Länder are resisting and investors are no longer rushing to respond to calls for tenders given the growing difficulties in setting up projects, 20% of which are the subject of complaints.
Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Berlin contribute the least (deposit less than 100 kW/km²). These regions represent 35% of the territory’s surface, but they only contribute 10% to the total installed wind turbine capacity. Since 2014, Bavaria has, for example, implemented very restrictive legislation, which it does not intend to abandon, by introducing the “10H” rule. It stipulates that a wind turbine must be at least ten times its height away from any dwelling.