Several wind turbines built by the ENECO consortium off Ostend, on the Belgian coast, photographed on October 25, 2019. -
Eric Feferberg / AFP
France has set itself, in its energy roadmap, to reduce the share of nuclear power to 50% in its electricity mix by 2035. This implies developing renewable energies.
Including offshore wind, on which France is lagging far behind.
Should we then expect to see wind turbines flourish off the Normandy coast?
This seafront has many advantages in any case and three wind farms installed (fixed to the seabed) have already been recorded, while waiting for a fourth still in the boxes.
It is the latter which was the subject of a public debate in Normandy, the conclusions of which were presented on Thursday.
Participants were invited to make proposals on its future location.
Without the possibility of simply questioning it?
“I realize that there is always a call for tenders arriving today, tomorrow, and yet another the day after tomorrow: how many parks are you going to put in the Channel.
And the whole sea?
"The question is that of a retired fisherman from Tréport (Seine-Maritime), raised in the context of the public debate" At sea, in Normandy, new wind turbines?
Which was held from November 15, 2019 to August 19, 2020. It is in bold in the report of the discussions presented this Thursday by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP).
200 participants in the feedback meeting #debatpublic @eolmernormandie @CNDPDebatPublic @afpfr pic.twitter.com/6qpU7oloH9
- Luc Picot (@lucpicot) November 12, 2020
It must be said that this remark sums up a concern expressed during this debate.
On April 23, the government adopted its Plural Energy Programming (PPE), which sets out the broad lines of its policy in this area for the years to come.
It aims in particular to reduce the share of nuclear power to 50% by 2035 [against 70% today] and is betting on a strong development of renewable energies.
Including offshore wind.
Major assets in Normandy
"The PPE plans to launch calls for tenders in the next ten years at the rate of one gigawatt (GW) every year and aims for an installed capacity of around 6 GW in 2028", recalls Barbara Pompili, Minister of Transition ecological, specifying that "this deployment will be carried out on all French maritime facades".
The English Channel, off the coast of Normandy, has major advantages.
The force of the winds already, "but also a shallow depth of the sea, which makes it a better source for wind power placed [fixed in the shallows, unlike floating wind power]", explains Matthieu Monnier, Assistant to the General Delegate of France Wind Energy, a federation of French wind power companies.
Normandy is used to public debates on wind power at sea. And for good reason, three wind farms installed, not yet built, have already been recorded.
The Fécamp park [71 wind turbines, between 13 and 22 km from the coast];
that of Dieppe-Le Treport [62 wind turbines, 15.5 km from Dieppe and 17 from Treport] and that of Courseulles-sur-Mer, in Calvados [63 wind turbines 10 km from the coast].
The first two are to be commissioned in 2023, the last in 2024.
A fourth park announced in 2028
This new public debate focused on a fourth wind farm project.
Even larger than the three previous ones, since it provides for 83 wind turbines, each 260 m high, over an area of between 100 and 150 km², for a power of one gigawatt, "ie double what is planned in the the first three parks, ”explains Matthieu Monnier.
The commissioning of this fourth park is announced for 2028. It remains to be seen where exactly to locate it.
It was precisely this question that participants were invited to answer in the context of the public debate.
Concretely, the participants had to, during mapping workshops, target the areas deemed most favorable to accommodate this park in a basin of 10,500 km², from the tip of Cotentin to Tréport, and in which the State had defined preferential areas. *.
We talk about it in the press, the conclusions of the debate @eolmernormandie https://t.co/kAArM6wLB0
- CNDP Public Debate (@CNDPDebatPublic) October 20, 2020
Before localization, the question of opportunity?
But before asking the question of location, we should first ask that of the opportunity.
Another remark heard during the public debate and included in the report made by the CNDP.
If the latter assures that it was possible, throughout the debate, to voice its disagreement on this project, the chances of having it canceled were minimal.
The letter of referral from the State, to convene this public debate, already left little illusion by inviting the public to comment on the program rather than on the project.
It also stated from the outset that other wind farms in the English Channel will come in the future.
And this Thursday morning, Barbara Pompili had the schedule well in mind for the rest of the project.
"We have until January 19 to respond to the conclusions of the public debate, then a preselection of the possible offers between January and February will follow, a dialogue with these companies from March to July, then the submission of official offers from August to next November ”, unfolds the Minister.
An eagerness far from being to the taste of all Normans.
To the classic anti-wind sling, in the name of the defense of the landscapes, is added, here, that of the fishermen.
"We are announcing today a fourth park and probably a fifth and a sixth to come, while the first three have not yet been built and we have no precise data on their impacts", criticizes Dimitri Rogoff, president of the Normandy Regional Fisheries Committee.
The fear is already that these wind farms are cutting back on the fishing grounds of French boats.
"This is really not the time when Brexit is already making us fear a ban on access to English areas," explains Dimitri Rogoff.
The fear is also that these wind farms, fixed to the seabed, have an impact on fish stocks.
Better understand the impacts, better plan development
A concern shared by environmental associations.
“We are not opposed to the development of offshore wind power,” begins André Berne, of France Nature Environnement Normandie.
But on condition that all the classified areas are preserved and that preliminary studies are carried out, over periods of more than one year, to measure the impact of these parks on marine fauna.
"So not just the species fished, but" all those that live in the seabed, on the surface, or in the air, "he continues.
Remarks heard this Thursday?
Barbara Pompili assured to take "already into account the wish" of fishermen "to be able to fish in the future wind farm".
The Minister, like Annick Girardin, Minister of the Sea, and Edouard Philippe, former Prime Minister and Mayor of Le Havre, also present during this restitution, also admitted the imperative to consolidate scientific knowledge on the impact of these wind farms.
Or the need to better plan the development of offshore wind power off the French coast.
"By no longer thinking on the scale of parks, but of facades", insists Annick Girardin.
Other parks to come in the Channel?
No question, however, of slowing down.
France, which nevertheless has the second largest offshore wind farm in Europe, is lagging far behind on the subject.
Of the seven projects awarded, none is yet in operation and the country has programmed only six gigawatts of total capacity by 2028. "We need to be more ambitious," said Annick Girardin, who mentioned the objective "To achieve that 25 or 30% of our electricity comes from our energies at sea by this time".
Or the hypothesis of having 50 gigawatts of installed capacity in 2050 **.
We then come back to the question of the retired fisherman from Tréport: how many parks does that mean off the Normandy coast?
The question remains unanswered.
"This is precisely the question that planning will have to answer", continues Matthieu Monnier.
One certainty: such objectives would imply the realization of a fifth and a sixth park off the Normandy coast, as Dimitri Rogoff fears.
"Even more", abounds Matthieu Monnier.
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* This work made it possible to identify three main families of sites popular with the public, summarizes the CNDP in its report: one favoring the installation near one of the three parks already registered, the other favoring the a great distance from the coast while remaining in the preferential zones, and the last at an even greater distance but outside the preferential zone.
** The European Commission estimates that the total capacity of wind turbines at sea, in Europe, could reach between 230 and 450 gigawatts of electricity in 2050. “If we decline this objective country by country, depending on their maritime facades, we should be between 50 and 60 gigawatts installed, at that date, off the French coast, ”explains Mathieu Monnier.
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