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There are those who see the glass as half empty and those who see it as half full.
On the one hand, there are the members of the Collective for the Defense of the Sea (CDM) bringing together opponents of the offshore wind farm off Saint-Nazaire.
On the other, EDF Renouvelables, the project leader.
Based on the same electricity production data from the site, their analyzes diverge.
If for the second, everything is going well, for the first, nothing is going well.
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First thing to know: on February 16, EDF Renewables welcomed the good first figures - the fleet was launched at full speed at the end of November 2022 - recorded in this area.
“During the month of January 2023, the park [...] produced more than 180,000 MWh, the equivalent of the consumption of nearly 850,000 people!
A rise in power in the heart of winter for the first wind farm at sea”
, was it mentioned in a publication on Twitter.
This overall figure, opponents do not find much to complain about, even if they describe as
“misleading shortcuts”
its comparison with the
“consumption of so many thousands of people”
which
“corresponds to nothing known”
.
For them, the main thing is elsewhere: it hides, like the devil, in the details.
“A complete aberration”
Above all, they criticize the
“dizzying intermittence”
of production.
For this, they rely on a graph posted on the regularly updated energygraphinfo website, which lists day-to-day data.
"Production was strictly zero on January 16, 20, 30, 31, February 9, 18, 19, 21, 22 and March 6 and 10," they wrote in a statement
.
Thus, for them,
"such an instability of production technically condemns intermittent production, and it is dishonest to refer to the equivalent of the consumption of a population"
.
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According to them, this intermittency would thwart the production objectives of the site as they were defined and validated at the time of its creation.
These amount to a return forecast of 40%.
The account would not be there.
“Between January 10 and March 10, 2023, the graphs show an average of 161 MW or a yield of 33.5%.
After the summer, we will be clearly below, around 30% or less”
, they anticipate.
For Alain Doré, a member of the collective contacted by
Le Figaro
, the recent data demonstrate
“the permanent lies”
and the
“scandal”
about offshore wind power.
“There are plenty of days when production drops to zero.
It's a mismanagement given the billions in subsidies granted.
It's a complete aberration
, ”he storms.
From his reading of the data, the former optical engineer emerges that
"the force of the wind at sea is stronger than on land but that its variations are at least as great or even greater than what there may be at sea. earth”
.
Production above expectations
On the side of EDF Renouvelables, the discourse is quite different.
Just like the analysis of the figures elsewhere.
Whether for those already existing or for future screenings.
Accustomed to fighting against disputes - several legal appeals had been made to the Council of State for ecological and economic reasons in the face of this project - the company is staying on course.
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“Power generation from offshore wind turbines is intermittent but predictable. Studies carried out over the past seven years on the Saint-Nazaire site show that the park will produce electricity 80 to 90% of the time and will operate on average at 40% of its maximum power", defends Pierre-Emmanuel Guillot, director
of production at EDF Renewables.
"Over the period from November to January, the production of the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm was above these average forecasts"
, he adds while specifying that
"the annual production of the park is the equivalent 20% of electricity consumption in Loire-Atlantique”
.
