• The floating wind farm projects in the Mediterranean are currently being presented to the public.

  • Two of them should see the light of day between 2024 and 2027, possibly off Fos and in the Gulf of Lion.

  • Two of these farms can produce the equivalent of a nuclear power plant.

"We must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35% between 2015 and 2030," Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday when announcing his investment plan for the industry.

Among the solutions already under study, the projects of wind farms in the open sea, moored by anchors, are currently traveling on the shores of the Mediterranean to be presented to the public and made a stopover this Tuesday in Marseille.

The equivalent of a nuclear power plant

“Ultimately, between 2024 and 2027, two 750 megawatt wind farms, with an area of ​​150 km² per farm, will have a total of around 100 floating wind turbines installed around 20 kilometers from the coast.

This is the equivalent of the production of a nuclear power plant or of 400 onshore wind turbines, ”explains Yannick Bocquenet, responsible for the consultation project for RTE (electrical transmission network, the infrastructure branch of EDF).

"The maritime models are more powerful, have a better performance and are much larger - up to 260 meters at the end of the blades, against 60 meters for the land models", he explains.

Obviously, it remains to define the sites and explain the program to the public, hence its presence on Tuesday in the Old Port.

Four locations were shortlisted, including the Gulf of Fos, off Marseille, and the Gulf of Lion.

Cost of the project: between 1.5 and 2.2 billion euros for the two sites.

Sum to which must be added between 500 and 800 million euros for the infrastructure of connection to the electricity network.

A project that seems to seduce Serge, who stopped, intrigued, leaving the metro.

"I was not at all aware of it but I was wondering precisely why it had not yet been done."

The pilot project challenged at the administrative tribunal

However, some raise reservations, often for ecological or heritage considerations. "Questions about the visual impact, marine fauna, tourism, fishing or birds come up regularly," says François, who works for the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Birds, this is what has already delayed the realization of a pilot farm of three wind turbines off Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône. The association for the defense of the Camargue environment, Naccica, canceled last October at the administrative court the prefectural authorization for its establishment. The court considered that there remained "a reasonable doubt (...) on the good conservation of the populations of three species of protected birds".

The environment is what worries Katell, a native of Brittany passing through Marseille.

“I am in favor of it, on condition that I properly measure the impact on the environment.

But if this makes it possible to dismantle dilapidated power plants and reduce CO2 emissions, that is going in the right direction, ”she said.

In terms of the calendar, the reports of these field consultations will arrive on Barbara Pompili's desk at the end of the year.

The Minister for the Ecological Transition will then have until March to stop the sites selected and launch the calls for tenders.

The start of operation, initially in a reduced form of 20 wind turbines, is not planned before 2024.

Planet

Budget 2022: The Ministry of Ecological Transition among the big winners?

Planet

Saint-Brieuc: Fishermen file a complaint against the offshore wind farm project

  • Mediterranean

  • Energetic transition

  • Planet

  • Wind turbine

  • Marseilles