Fabien Bouglé is an expert in energy policy. In 2019, he was interviewed by the National Assembly's parliamentary commission of inquiry into renewable energies, and published a first work with significant repercussions
: Wind turbines, the dark face of ecological transition
(ed. Du Rocher).
Business leader in the financial and cultural sector, he is also elected municipal (various right) in Versailles.
His latest book,
Nuclear, the hidden truths,
is published by Editions du Rocher.
LE FIGARO. - Emmanuel Macron inaugurates Thursday, September 22 off Saint-Nazaire the very first of a series of offshore wind farms, whose deployment he intends to accelerate in the face of the energy crisis. How do you view this strategy?
Faben BOUGLÉ. -
This inauguration by Emmanuel Macron is the inauguration of a great French failure, that of the deployment of renewable energies and in particular wind turbines.
It should be remembered that this plant of 80 wind turbines on 78 km² was launched more than ten years ago.
Elected officials and residents of Saint-Nazaire or La Baule were able to see the significant difference that exists between the pixelated photomontages of the time and the reality of the installation in place today.
The visual pollution of the coast is particularly visible since the wind turbines are only 12 km from the coast, creating a kind of wall of the Atlantic.
The President of the Republic seems to have wanted to make this wind power plant the symbol of the regeneration of electricity in the midst of an energy crisis.
However, according to figures from WindEurope (Editor's note, a European association based in Brussels, which promotes the use of wind energy), the offshore wind power plant off Saint-Nazaire, 78 km², will produce 8% of what produces the Bugey nuclear power plant, near Lyon, installed on just 1 km².
In order to achieve electricity production equivalent to the Bugey nuclear power plant, 13 wind farms would have to be built like that of Saint-Nazaire, i.e. 1,000 wind turbines over 1,000 km².
It is inconceivable.
To face the crisis, we will need powerful, controllable electricity, available on demand and only nuclear can provide these solutions.
Fabien Bougle
The Head of State, on the other hand, put the brakes on onshore wind power, with a doubling of the current capacity no longer over 10 but 30 years. He also announced the revival of nuclear power with the construction of six EPR2 reactors by 2035. Can we reconcile nuclear power and wind power at sea?
The Belfort announcements to which you refer give pride of place to renewables, with a very notable increase in solar panels and wind turbines at sea: between 4 and 5,000 are envisaged.
We are far from a major massive nuclear plan that I call for.
To face the crisis, we will need powerful, controllable electricity, available on demand and only nuclear can provide these solutions.
Renewables, wind or photovoltaic are intermittent energy sources that require gas or coal power plants in addition.
This is the German model, with 45% wind turbines and solar panels, 45% oil, gas and coal.
Result: Germany emits 10 times more greenhouse gases than France.
It is illusory to believe that we will be able to develop powerful electrical energy in France with renewables, even if they are complementary.
But at this stage, the law that will arrive in the Senate and then in the National Assembly must still be discussed by parliamentarians, who are sovereign and will have to decide on our energy policy.
Emmanuel Macron's wish is one thing, the political will of parliamentarians is another.
I have every hope that parliamentarians will regain some form of lucidity and return to fundamentals like the Messmer plan, by creating the conditions to mitigate the very negative consequences that wind turbines can have for citizens.
We want to respond to a crisis by emphasizing the reason for which we entered the crisis.
Fabien Bougle
In a context of soaring hydrocarbon prices and faced with the risk of shortages linked to the war in Ukraine, do intermittent renewables make it possible to ensure our energy sovereignty?
This is a decoy since the reason for the energy crisis that we are experiencing is linked to the low production of electricity from renewables in Europe, in particular via the European Green Pact.
We want to respond to a crisis by emphasizing the reason for which we entered the crisis.
In addition, no wind turbine or solar panel is designed and built in France.
For the supply of renewable electricity plants, we remain totally dependent on foreign countries.
Read alsoEnergy crisis: “We are paying today for the executive’s short-term strategy”
The European Parliament is mistaken when it wants to develop renewables.
It is a resounding failure.
Moreover, the German Federal Court of Auditors had explained this in March 2021, referring to a multiplication of power cuts and an explosion in the electricity bill if Germany continued this policy.
Needless to say, she wasn't wrong.
We are in a situation where it is urgent to make a 180° turn.
With this inauguration with great fanfare, is Emmanuel Macron above all seeking to give pledges to environmentalists?
In any case, he is trying to camouflage the failure of his energy policy.
It closed Fessenheim, while the Flamanville EPR (Manche) under construction has still not started, ended the Astrid project in 2019, which aimed to use nuclear waste to transform it into electricity, maintained the law reduction in the nuclear share of 14 nuclear reactors and reduction to 50% of the electricity mix which is still in progress today, and therefore it bears an extremely strong responsibility for the energy crisis that we are experiencing.
Emmanuel Macron is trying to pretend that he is doing something about energy.
But this park was launched at the time by Valérie Pécresse and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, under Nicolas Sarkozy.
In terms of the support of public opinion, I don't believe either that he gains by inaugurating a park that is particularly contested by local elected officials and residents.