Mauprevoir - May 2018
News from Mauprevoir Environnement
Mauprévoir Environnement is delighted that our Mayor and the Conseil Municipal has voted for a moratorium on the wind turbine project in our commune.
The mayor proposed to the council that: 'The commune of Mauprévoir decides the suspension of all the studies and works in progress concerning the wind power on its territory while waiting for SCoT's final criteria, which will not be established for two years.' The deliberation was approved with eight votes in favour, three votes against, three abstentions and one blank ballot.
(SCoT, or 'Schéma de cohérence territoriale', is a strategic planning document for medium and long-term space planning which includes environmental issues).
However, when Michelle Manselon of Mauprevoir Envionnement spoke to Sergies engineers setting up the balloons and Volkswind staff spoke to Mme Guyot of Abbaye de la Réau, they made it very clear that neither company is paying attention to the moratorium and is continuing to work towards completion of the project paperwork for the wind farm.
The Prefecture is not bound by the moratorium and neither – it seems – are the turbine companies, so while we are very grateful to our Mayor and the Council, our community must continue the fight to prevent this ruination of our environment.
Paris - December 19th, 2017
Press release from the Fédération Environnement Durable
The Council of State confirms the cancellation of all "Regional Wind Plans" and condemns the former Minister of the Environment Ségolène Royal
By its decision of December 18, 2017 the Council of State confirms the definitive cancellation of the regional pattern of climate, air and energy (SRCAE) and the Regional Wind Plan (SRE) of the Lorraine region and condemns it former Minister of the Environment Ségolène Royal.
This cancellation by the Council of State entails the definitive cancellation of all the other Regional Eolian Schemes already removed by the administrative justices of the various regions of France.
This sanction was pronounced mainly for lack of prior environmental assessment in violation of European law. This lack of environmental assessment explains why almost all French territory was in these schemes declared eligible for wind power, despite the refusal of municipalities and the fragility of rural areas.
This decision of the high court of our country, reveals in the light of the disastrous policy of deregulation in favor of the wind industry, led to "forced march" by the successive governments of France and in disregard of the opinions of citizens and laws .
This leap forward is to turn a blind eye to the failure of the wind industry.
It hopes that with the help of the State, it will be able to exonerate itself from legally protected environmental interests: the living environment and the health of local residents, security, landscapes, historical monuments, fauna and flora and more generally the biodiversity.
The objectives of the new Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot who has appointed a "new commission" to further accelerate the wind program demonstrates the obstinacy of the government not to want to face the truth.
Yet this industry, under public infusion since 2001, creates virtually no jobs, massacre France, incurs an exorbitant cost for electricity consumers, in defiance of the principle of consultation, and without taking into account many and relevant recommendations of certain services of the State confronted daily with the reality of the field.
The Sustainable Environment Federation will use as it has done for 9 years all national and European legal means to combat this strategic error of our country.
November 15, 2017
From EDF
Press Statement
France energy policy risks of power cuts this winter
On January 25, 2017, at 19 hours, "We went to a hair to initiate the measure of interruptibility" declared the President of the Board of RTE, François Brottes, a few days later. Although France is experiencing an ordinary cold wave with milder temperatures than expected, the French electricity system had only 1,000 MW of margin or 1% of its mobilizable production capacity.
On that day, at the peak of consumption, demand amounted to 92,788 MW. To cope with this situation, all the means of production were solicited: nuclear power supplied 61% of the demand, hydroelectric 13%, gas 10%, fuel oil 5%, coal 3%, wind power 1.5%, photovoltaic 0% (at 19 hours, in winter it is dark), bioenergy 1% and import 5.5%.
Today, as winter approaches, EDF's CCE elected officials exercise their duty to warn of the risks of power cuts. Since last winter, oil-fired power plants have been shut down by EDF because of insufficient profitability, which means a production gap of 2,400 MW. RTE, in a press release dated 7 November 2017, said that: "It may be necessary to take exceptional measures, including scheduled cuts this winter."
For elected officials of the CCE, the worst is coming for the summers and winters next. Indeed, the capacity to ensure the security of supply by the wind production parks has largely deteriorated. The expertise carried out by IED, at the request of the CCE, shows that the risks of supply disruption will become inevitable.
On the one hand, thermal, nuclear and fossil fueled production, whose power is guaranteed when necessary, are closed or condemned in the short term, despite the negative opinions of the unanimous staff representatives.
On the other hand, the capacity of electricity production increases only through the development of intermittent and non-controllable renewable energies (photovoltaic and wind). With an availability rate of 15 to 25%, they are not adequate at times of peak demand.
Moreover,electricity from neighboring countries via interconnections is technically limited and climatic hazards often hit them at the same time. On January 25, 2017, at 19 hours, for example, there was almost no wind in France or Germany.
To prevent the worst-case scenario, elected representatives of the CCE propose to:
- a significant increase in the price of electricity and consequently an increase in fuel poverty for individuals (eleven million households are currently in energy poverty);
- a decrease in economic activities for which the low price of electricity in France is a lever for development;
- a deterioration of the supply (drop in voltage);
- consumption restrictions (power cuts)
Paris, November 11, 2017
FED
Communiqué de Presse
Administrative Court of Appeal cancels Regional Eolien Scheme
By judgment dated November 10, 2017, the Administrative Court of Appeal of Marseille canceled the "Regional Scheme Climate Air Energy" and the "Regional Scheme Eolien Languedoc-Roussillon" (SRE) which had been validated by the court of Montpellier.
This cancellation follows fourteen other cancellations of SRE, in Aquitaine, Ile de France, Lower Normandy, Rhone Alpes, Brittany, Limousin, Paca, Lorraine, Pays de Loire, Auvergne, Picardy, Burgundy, Midi-Pyrenees partially, and the Nord Pas de Calais.
These sanctions are mostly imposed for lack of prior environmental assessment in violation of European law. This lack of environmental assessment explains that almost all French territory was, by these schemes, declared eligible for wind power, despite the refusal of municipalities and the fragility of rural areas.
These multiple annulments by the justice of our country, reveal in the light of the disastrous policy of deregulation in favor of the wind industry, carried out "forced march" by the governments of France and in disregard of the opinions of the citizens. The objectives of the new environment ministry which has appointed a "new commission" to accelerate the wind program demonstrates the obstinacy of the government not to want to look the truth in the face ie the failure of this industry of the wind.
The wind industry hopes again to be able, with the help of the State, to exonerate itself from legally protected environmental interests: the living environment and the health of the local residents, security, landscapes, historical monuments, fauna and flora and more generally biodiversity.
Yet this industry, under public infusion since 2001, creates virtually no jobs, generates an exorbitant cost for electricity consumers, disregarding the principle of consultation, and without even taking into account the many and relevant recommendations of certain services of the state confronted daily with the reality of the countryside.
Click to downoad Appeal court judgement document (in French)
Paris, November 10, 2017
FED
Communiqué de Presse
Wind turbines of shame
After Verdun and Douaumont, industrial wind projects are now threatening a new battleground of the First World War, between the villages of Bullecourt and Riencourt in the Pas-de-Calais.
10,000 Australian volunteer soldiers were killed or wounded there. All remains have not been removed from the battlefield. They rest in peace under agricultural crops, and the Australians continue to come to Bullecourt to pay homage to their dead.
Australia announced Wednesday (November 8th) that it would seek clarification from France to prevent the desecration of this military cemetery.
The Sustainable Environment Federation, which brings together 1,200 associations of volunteer citizens from all regions of our country, is asking President Emmanuel Macron to cancel this project.
The Sustainable Environment Federation also rebels against the building permit accepted by the government, aiming to erect 75 giant wind turbines on the marine cemetery of Arromanches, one of the highest places in the history of the Second World War.
The Sustainable Environment Federation denounces the financial voracity of the wind manufacturers and all the organizations supporting them, which not only ruin France, destroy its landscapes, and now dishonor it.
October 31, 2017
From European Platform Against Windfarms
German Wind Farms To Be Terminated As Subsidies Run Out
Wind power is the most important component of Germany’s green energy transition. The end of subsides for older turbines, however, threatens countless wind farms. By 2023, more than a quarter of Germany’s onshore wind farms may be gone.
Several thousand wind turbines in Germany are likely to be closed down in the next decade because they will no longer receive any subsidies. “If electricity prices do not rise over the next decade, only a few plants will survive on the market without subsidies,” says an analysis by the Berlin-based consulting firm Energy Brainpool. This assessment is shared by most professionals. “In any case, by 2020, the shutdown of existing facilities is to be expected to a greater or lesser extent,” an article by several economists of the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig concludes.
The sticking point is the electricity price of 2021, which nobody knows today. Older wind turbines who have been running for 20 years or more will lose their subsidies under the Renewable Energy Act (EEG), but not their operating permit. They could go on generating power, if they would be profitable. Like all older technology, after 20 years of wear and tear, wind turbines are prone to repairs and are more maintenance-intensive than new products. Operating costs are higher too. The current electricity price of around three cents per kilowatt hour would not be enough to keep wind farms running – with perhaps a few exceptions in particularly good locations.
By 2021 alone, 5,700 wind turbines with a capacity of 4,500 megawatts will be closed down. In the following years, 2,000 to 3,000 megawatts each will be decommissioned. The German Wind Energy Association estimates that by 2023 around 14,000 megawatts of installed capacity will be gone. That would be more than a quarter of the currently installed onshore wind power capacity which would be eliminated.
The planned expansion corridor for onshore wind energy envisages that 2,900 megawatts of power will be installed in 2020 and in subsequent years. But that’s gross, not net. Decommissioned and dismantled facilities are not considered. In light of the current situation, more wind capacity would be decommissioned than new capacity added. Onshore wind energy would shrink, not grow.
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