Emmanuel Macron will inaugurate the first offshore wind farm in France, off Saint-Nazaire – Le Monde

Emmanuel Macron, September 21, 2022 in New York. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP Emmanuel Macron inaugurates, Thursday, September 22, off Saint-Nazaire the very first of a series of offshore wind farms, whose deployment he intends to accelerate in the face of the energy crisis. “This is the start of the journey, a first step towards the massive development of renewable energies”, promises the Elysée. With a watchword, to strengthen the “energy sovereignty” of France, in the midst of soaring hydrocarbon prices and faced with the risk of shortages linked to the war in Ukraine, and to reduce the country’s big delay in renewables compared to his neighbors. The Head of State will travel by boat in the morning to the site of 80 wind turbines, deployed 12 to 20 kilometers from the coasts of Pouliguen and Croisic. The fleet, operated by EDF, will be fully commissioned by the end of the year. It will then display a power of 480 megawatts (MW) capable of satisfying the demands of 700,000 people. Emmanuel Macron will also visit the Chantiers de l’Atlantique, in Saint-Nazaire, where the wind turbines are assembled before their installation at sea. Council of Ministers. The text aims to shorten project completion times by simplifying administrative procedures and limiting the time taken to examine appeals filed by environmentalists, fishermen and local residents. Today, it takes an average of ten years for an offshore site to come into service in France, compared to five in Germany, six in the United Kingdom. For onshore wind, it’s seven years, twice as long as in Spain or Germany, and photovoltaic is hardly better off. Read also: The reasons for the French delay in the production and installation of wind turbines Objective of around fifty parks by 2050 With this project, Emmanuel Macron, determined to keep a reform course at the start of the second five-year term , intends to give pledges to the left and the ecologists, while at the same time emphasizing pensions or unemployment insurance in the direction of the right. However, the examination of the text promises to be difficult in the National Assembly, in the absence of an absolute majority and faced with an extreme right and certain right-wing elected officials standing up against wind power. The subject had already been invited in the presidential campaign, the candidate RN Marine Le Pen demanding the stopping of the projects and the progressive dismantling of the existing sites. On February 10 in Belfort, Emmanuel Macron opted for offshore wind power, with a target of around fifty parks by 2050 for a capacity of 40 gigawatts. To date, seven parks have been awarded to operators: after Saint-Nazaire, construction began in Saint-Brieuc, subject to friction with fishermen, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp. Subsequently, other calls for tenders were launched, including two in the Mediterranean. In Oléron, appeals have been filed to postpone the project further offshore. The Head of State, on the other hand, put the brakes on onshore wind power, with a doubling of the current capacity no longer over ten but thirty years. He also announced the revival of nuclear power with the construction of six EPR2 reactors by 2035, and a tenfold increase in installed solar power by 2050. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers First measures of urgency to revive renewable energies “Facilitate the processing” of files “The course set in Belfort is more urgent” than ever since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine on February 24 and in the face of the increasingly tangible damage of climate change, insists the Elysee. Several NGOs, including France nature environnement (FNE), have criticized provisions of the bill aimed at simplifying procedures. The development of renewables must be done “in compliance with public consultation procedures and environmental law”, they plead. The government ultimately withdrew one of the criticized articles on Wednesday. France Energie Eolienne, for its part, considers that this text can contribute, in the long term, to installing renewables in the landscape, in particular by recording a reduction in the electricity bill for residents of parks, or by planning offshore wind power by facade maritime for a longer-term vision. But to accelerate in the immediate future, the sector is counting above all on a recent circular asking the prefects to “facilitate the processing” of files. Because the developers of onshore wind power have seen authorizations collapse for three years, taking France a little further away from its objectives. In a context of tight electricity supply and unavailability of part of the nuclear fleet, wind, solar and methanation will be, until 2025, “the only means to produce more megawatt hours”, plead their representatives. In 2021, renewable technologies provided 24% of electricity production (hydraulic, wind, solar, bioenergy), nuclear 69%, and fossil fuels 7%. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Behind the opposition to wind turbines, an influential and pro-nuclear galaxy Le Monde with AFP