"
It's ugly and it disturbs nature
", is carried away in her farm Joëlle Villa, pointing to the immense blades: near the Sainte-Victoire mountain dear to Cézanne, twenty-two wind turbines arouse the anger of heritage defenders and of the environment, even if others hail this "
green energy
".
To read also: The Sainte-Victoire, sacred mountain of the painter
Cheaper than nuclear, powered by wind and manufactured with a derisory amount of materials compared to other constructions, according to Marc Jedliczka, spokesperson for the negaWatt association, wind power is on the rise. time for the fight against global warming.
"Of course, the best energy saving is the one that we do not consume, but wind power remains very good news for the environment"
, continues the representative of the association which campaigns for the energy transition.
However, in the Haut-Var, at the crossroads of the Sainte-Baume regional natural park and that of Sainte-Victoire, a park of 22 steel pylons 125 meters high never ceases to be talked about. him. Its detractors gathered around a petition launched on the internet, counting some 21,600 signatures including that of the host Stéphane Bern, the “
Mr. Heritage
” of Emmanuel Macron, and which calls for “
saving
” the Sainte-Victoire. Labeled "
Great site of France
», This limestone massif stretches for about twenty kilometers, near Aix-en-Provence.
Culminating at an altitude of around 1000 meters, Sainte-Victoire owes its worldwide fame to the painter Paul Cézanne, born in Aix-en-Provence in 1839, who has represented it more than eighty times on his paintings.
Sainte-Victoire mountain, painted more than 80 times by Paul Cézanne.
bbsferrari / stock.adobe.com
"
It makes noise and distorts the landscape
"
For Marc-Antoine Chavanis, local representative of the Sites and Monuments association at the origin of the petition, the 110 GWh of electricity that the 22 wind turbines can produce per year, or the equivalent of the average electricity consumption of 110,000 inhabitants (excluding heating), as praised by its promoters, are not convincing. Having entered into a crusade against “
these steel monsters
” that emerged from the earth a year ago after a long legal battle still in progress, the activist castigates installations that he considers “
anything but green
”. "
Each wind turbine is supported by a foot of 1,500 tonnes of concrete, the blades, made of fiberglass, are transported from China and the forest has been cleared over 25,000 m2 to create tracks to allow semi-trailers to access at the site,
”he points out.
To read also: Wind turbines: "The invaders"
Joëlle Villa, 75, one of the rare inhabitants of this depopulated territory to have a direct view of the wind farm, does not budge.
“As long as you don't have them under your nose, you can't imagine what they are. It makes noise, distorts the landscape and disturbs my animals with these flashes that flash at night, ”
insists the farmer who is raising a few llamas, geese and donkeys.
“Green energy is rubbish, marketing. We have never seen a wind turbine grow naturally, ”
condemns the energetic retiree.
The wind turbines - eight of which were installed in a Natura 2000 area, supposed to
"protect the habitats and species representative of European biodiversity"
- would be particularly harmful to fauna and bats, warns Mr. Chavanis.
But a few months after the wind farm was put into operation, the follow-up study entrusted to the Bird Protection League (LPO) by the manufacturer of this wind farm, Eco Delta, has not yet delivered its conclusions.
"
All the disadvantages and very few advantages
"
"We do surveys every day to see if there are corpses under the wind turbines, which is not the case for the moment, to check the populations of birds and to observe possible changes in their behavior"
, explains Amine Flitti, director of the LPO Paca, joined by AFP.
"In the event of anomalies, we will not hesitate to ask the company for corrective measures"
, defends the representative of the association accused by his detractors of
"being bound hand and foot"
with Eco Delta, who says on its website, pay
"nearly 450,000 euros locally per year for the treatment and support of incidents"
.
Eco Delta, a subsidiary of JC Mont-Fort, a holding company based in Switzerland, recalls having made
“a total commitment to the protection of nature”
in this case.
"Few parks are financially supported at this point by measures to minimize the impact,"
defends its president Andréa Jouven to AFP. Some local elected officials have chosen pragmatism.
"We could have found another place to establish them, but now that they are there, we are not going to exhaust the town in a rearguard fight"
, recognizes Arnaud Fauquet Lemaitre, the new mayor of Ollières, a of the two towns where the pylons were installed, with Artigues.
The elected official who has engaged in a legal standoff with the company says he is ready to withdraw his case if he obtains
"financial compensation". “We all have the disadvantages and very few advantages,” he
argues. The Sites and Monuments association fears that the objective set by France to increase the share of wind power in electricity production from 7% today to 20% in 2028 (the offshore wind power representing a quarter of this objective), does not multiply these
“disfigurements”
of the landscape.
"The pressure will increase and we will go more and more in protected landscapes which have the advantage of being little urbanized"
, fears its president Julien Lacaze.
Read also: Near the Sainte-Victoire mountain, these wind turbines that sow discord
