REPORTAGE
France currently has no offshore wind farms, but four projects have been launched: in Fécamp, Courseulles-sur-Mer, Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Nazaire. This last project is already under construction. Europe 1 was able to visit it on the occasion of sustainable energy week.
This park of 80 wind turbines dispersed on the horizon, 12 km from the coast, will be almost invisible, assures us Philippe Kasse, of Chantiers de l'Atlantique, in charge of the project.
"We can see it, only on sunny days, from La Baule beach. But these wind turbines will be the size of a pinhead for residents."
Giants planted at the bottom of the sea
And yet, they are much larger machines than onshore wind turbines: more than 200 meters high, the size of two Airbus A380s. The project has been launched for ten years, and it will take another two years before these wind turbines can be installed.
"The wind turbines will be planted at the bottom of the sea. We start by drilling a hole, then we put a steel tube 80 meters long, which we cement so that it can hold", specifies Frédéric Grizaud, head of the marine energy branch of Chantiers de l'Atlantique. Eight meter diameter drills, identical to those used to dig the Grand Paris metro, are currently operating underwater.
"I'm not going to tell you that we are delighted"
The bulk of the opposition came from fishermen. To convince them, EDF took them to see what is already being done in the United Kingdom and Denmark. "I'm not going to tell you that we are delighted that there are wind turbines," admits the head of the fisheries committee, "but we have obtained compensation." These 80 wind turbines will produce from 2022 the equivalent of 20% of the electricity consumption of the Loire-Atlantique department.