Catherine MacGregor, managing director of Engie, the leader in wind and solar power in France, regretted on Friday that "
onshore wind power
" had "
become a dirty word
" at a time when the energy transition and crisis require mobilizing "
all renewable energies
.
"
This anti-wind feeling is no longer relevant in a world where we are in urgent need of energy every day
," the director general of Engie told journalists, on the sidelines of a visit to a site of the Bretelle and Echalot onshore wind farms, in Côte-d'Or.
"
We have the impression that onshore wind power has become a dirty word, or a taboo word
", she commented, while wind power projects, especially onshore, are the subject in certain territories of a lively dispute for several years.
For the leader of Engie, the existence of an "
anti-wind feeling must have taken root with projects that were poorly carried out and which pulled the industry down
".
Read also“The French government muzzles the protest”: opponents of wind farms counter-attack at European level
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of these wind farms in Côte-d'Or, a project launched in 2003 but whose operation only began in 2012 due to various appeals, the Director General welcomed the contrary to
the "appropriation
" of these installations, the result of "
consultation
" work and a method that aims to be "
exemplary
".
"
On the dismantling (of wind turbines at the end of operation), we must be exemplary, we remove everything
," she explained.
The annual production of these parks of around 80,000 MWh/year can supply 37,000 people with electricity, “
the equivalent of almost a quarter of the population of the city of Dijon
”, according to Engie.
While the “
demand for electricity will explode
”, “
we will need nuclear but that will not be enough, we will need a lot of renewable energies, solar, wind, at sea and on land.
It is important to say that onshore wind power will contribute to this balanced energy mix
,” emphasized Ms. MacGregor.
Read alsoThe prefects put under pressure by the government to develop wind power
The government presented a bill on Monday to accelerate the development of renewable energies in order to catch up with France, a text focused on solar and wind power at sea. Emmanuel Macron, who himself advocates halving the pace of onshore wind deployment planned so far, recognized that it would be needed.