Le Figaro Nantes
To discover
Follow all the news of the city of Nantes
There is a headwind against a text deemed
“incredible”
which
“sacrifices the French coastal landscapes”
and their part of
“dream”
in the name of an
“industrial logic”
.
Yannick Moreau, various right-wing mayor of Sables-d'Olonne, blows hard against the bill to accelerate the production of renewable energies as validated by a joint joint committee (CMP) on January 24.
In his viewfinder, the failure to take into account a minimum distance for the installation of future wind farms at sea. As president of the national association of elected officials from the coast (Anel), he also deplores that the acceptance of projects by the local population has not been incorporated into law.
LE FIGARO - On the subject of wind turbines at sea, you recently denounced an “industrialization of coastal landscapes” and criticized a “coastal given over to developers”: why is that?
Yannick MOREAU -
The subject of accelerating wind power at sea, including near the coast, has become a priority over all economic subjects on the French coasts.
We ignore the tourist economy, the professional activity of fishing, to keep a short-term commitment on the birth of 40, 50 new wind farms off the French coast.
Coastal landscapes have become an adjustment variable in a national strategy of the energy mix that we do not yet know for technologies that are already dated and that do not have a future.
However, the coasts are, in a country plagued by doubt, an element of stability that contributes to the quality of life and a certain French way of life.
I regret that we sweep away
Read also Wind turbines at sea off Saint-Nazaire: navigation authorized but strictly supervised
In your opinion, the elected representatives of the coast and the populations are not consulted and listened to enough?
We had pleaded for a minimum distance of protection from the shore for the installation of future wind farms.
It is not included in the law as it is currently provided.
The text stipulates that future projects must be carried out as a priority in the territorial sea beyond 12 nautical miles.
This means that it is possible below.
In reality, there is no shoreline protection threshold.
As for the acceptance of the local population, it should have been incorporated into the law and it is not.
It is distressing and sad.
It is not acceptable to sacrifice coastal landscapes by neglecting the opinion of elected officials and populations.
Eight million French people live on the coast.
When they discover that no beach, coast or cliff is safe from
“The ocean is one of the last areas of freedom.
With wind farms, it will become a regulated, industrialized, consumed space.
»
For you, wind turbines at sea constitute a break in the imagination linked to the infinite horizon...
In the history of humanity, the call of the open sea has made sailors and landowners dream.
The conquest of the oceans is one of the last frontiers that Man has succeeded in overcoming.
It was based on the audacity to look beyond the horizon line.
If in front of the Vendée Globe bay, one of the most beautiful in the world (official distinction received in November 2021, editor's note), a wind farm is installed near the coast, where the dream for future generations is to set sail and achieve a world tour.
Does it start at the foot of the wind turbines?
The issue of wind farms is not simply economic, legal or industrial.
It is also part of France's maritime and coastal identity, of dreams of circumnavigating the globe and of infinity.
We agree that the ocean is the cradle and the
future of humanity but when it is a question of producing energy, one scratches with a pencil line thousand-year-old landscapes which did not ask anyone for anything.
Parliamentarians bear a heavy responsibility for future generations.
"Negotiations on a corner of the table"
On the subject of the change of tack, decided by the CMP, concerning the cancellation of the taking into account of secondary residences in the subsidies paid to municipalities impacted by a wind farm at sea, Yannick Moreau says he is perplexed:
"These are the pangs of negotiations on a corner of the table.
This decision is difficult to understand from the outside,”
he said.
Would the ocean therefore lose some of its mystical power?
The ocean is one of the last areas of freedom.
With wind farms, it will become a regulated, industrialized, consumed space.
It's going to be like a regular activity area.
However, it is the common good of humanity so it can only be touched with a trembling hand when it is absolutely necessary.
It is not conceivable to sacrifice, overnight without consideration for these coastal landscapes, this art of living which gave the most beautiful poems - I am thinking of Baudelaire - the greatest dreams.
Past powers were built with the conquest of the seas and the audacity to set sail.
From now on the ocean no longer begins at the beach or the shore but at the level of the wind farms.
Coastal landscapes deserve to be protected.
If the law doesn't do it, who will?
The choice of wind turbine installed near the coast is not the right one?
France is advancing at a forced march on a model that is already outdated because it is the only one that our industrialists have on hand.
In four to five years, Sweden, Denmark or Scotland will have floating wind farms 50 or 60km from the coast.
China plans to install wind turbines 150km from the coast at a depth of 400m.
We would therefore be the only andouilles in the world who would not be able to do it.
We would be ready to sacrifice landscapes when alternative solutions exist.
It's anything but serious.
France is making the quickest, most forced choice against the attractiveness of the coast and the landscapes.
It is unbelievable and saddening.
“France is landscapes of sunsets over the Atlantic without a horizon barred by a wind power plant.
»
You are therefore pleading for wind power floating far from the coast...
The production of renewable energy is necessary but there are industrial models that protect coastal landscapes and the coastal economy.
It is not a question of refusing offshore wind power but of reconciling things.
In my opinion, the best model is that of floating wind power, far from the coast, which basically produces hydrogen installations that can be transported by boat.
This makes it possible to produce energy without sacrificing the tourist and fishing economy.
In Vendée, we already produce hydrogen from the seaside (via the company Lhyfe located in Bouin, editor's note).
This could be done in the future at sea. In my municipality, next month, there will be a public service station which will distribute locally produced green hydrogen.
It is a way of
Read alsoEngie wins offshore wind farm project off California
Do you hope that parliamentarians will review their copy?
I was an MP for five years.
I fear that when there is a conclusive CMP, Parliament will vote on this text as it stands.
At the time of its application, it will be necessary to show discernment and agree to move back the wind sites so that they do not spoil the coastal landscapes and cut France off from what it is, that is to say to say landscapes of sunset over the Atlantic, without a horizon barred by a wind power station.
Our rulers will have to listen to elected officials and local populations.
At the local level, the Pays de la Loire Region has declared itself in favor of the establishment of a third wind farm.
Do you fear that offshore wind turbines are visible from your city?
Yes, that's why I organized a citizens' vote on this subject.
66% of Sablais voted against such a project.
I am afraid that Vendée and Loire-Atlantique will be the subject of a new offshore wind farm when they have already participated in the effort to produce renewable energy off the coast (the park off Saint -Nazaire is already working and the one off the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier is under construction, editor's note).
We were once good students.
A better distribution of projects is possible.
Especially since wind farms in front of an industrial port do not have the same impact as in front of the creeks of Cassis or the Baie des Sables.