The ruling against the operator of a wind farm in the Haut-Languedoc Nature Park caused a sensation in France.

After years of litigation, an appeals court in Toulouse has awarded residents the right to six-figure damages.

The judgment is final.

The complaint was filed by a Belgian couple who bought an old farmhouse in a small community in the nature park in 2004.

In 2008 and 2009, six wind turbines were installed 700 to 1300 meters away from their property.

According to their own admission, the woman and the man did not notice much of this at first.

Marcus Jung

Editor in business.

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When, however, a small forest was cut down in 2013, which until then had obscured the unobstructed view of the facilities, the health complaints increased noticeably. The couple complained of various visual and noise nuisances as well as physical disorders such as headaches, dizziness, fatigue, palpitations and tinnitus - and attributed this to the wind farm. After all, the doctors visited had not been able to determine any medical history that explained the discomfort. In May 2015 it became too much for the couple. It was compelled to move. Her health improved noticeably.

Your action for damages, which was then filed, was initially unsuccessful.

A French court in Castres recognized in the first instance that the wind farm was affecting the lives of the residents.

The nuisance would not go beyond the usual level, especially since the prescribed minimum distance between the systems and the residential area is observed.

The judges also saw no proven connection between the wind farm and the health problems.

Appeal for "abnormal neighborhood disorder"

But the couple didn't let that sit on them. It appealed for "abnormal neighborhood disorder" - and won. As can be seen in the judgment issued in July and now published, the wind farm operators were not only sentenced to pay compensation for health problems. The judges in Toulouse also estimated the loss in value of the property caused by the systems at just under 30,000 euros. All in all, the sum is more than 100,000 euros. That is less than the around 350,000 euros demanded by the plaintiffs. Nevertheless, the judgment is considered unprecedented in France. On the one hand, the complaints from residents about health problems caused by wind turbines are increasing. On the other hand, there has been no case so farin which the judges clearly attributed the defendant damage to the systems and sentenced operators to compensation of a comparable magnitude.

Organized opponents of wind power expect the ruling to back them up. The general minimum distance between new wind turbines and residents in France is 500 meters, regardless of the size of the settlement or municipality. An increase is increasingly an issue in view of the increasing height of new plants. Above all, politicians from the political right are mobilizing against new wind turbines. So far there are around 8,000 in France, significantly fewer than in Germany, where there are more than 30,000 systems.

In Germany, too, numerous citizens' initiatives against wind turbines have been formed by residents. At the center of their criticism are also the noise, slipstream and the allegedly disregarded distances to settlements. Nonetheless, there are only a few documented claims for damages against operators of wind farms, despite the many protests from the public. Rather, lawsuits in this country are primarily directed against the approval of wind turbines by the municipalities and districts. These are intended to oblige the municipalities and regional authorities to withdraw permits that have already been issued or to overturn plans that have been made to designate wind farms.

Various judgments by the administrative courts have resulted in a case law, according to which infrasound immissions from wind turbines are “generally below the threshold of human hearing” and, according to the current state of scientific knowledge, do not in principle lead to health risks.

Anyone who based their compensation before German civil courts on it, was previously at a losing position before the regional courts.