France’s former president tilts at windmills
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the former president who championed France’s dependence on nuclear power, may seem a modern Don Quixote as he leads a fierce battle against the expansion of wind power turbines.
But unlike the fictional knight charging at windmills, Giscard’s quest may not be futile.
Growing political opposition, a lack of government support, and changes in the regulatory framework mean that France is in danger of missing its ambitious wind power capacity target, set by the European Commission.
Giscard, president from 1974 to 1981, told Reuters in an interview that wind turbines were blighting the French landscape and were helped by questionable fiscal and financial rules.
“The French landscape is one of the world’s most beautiful but it’s sensitive, fragile,” said Giscard, 83 years old but who still puts in daily hours at his left-bank Parisian office.
“When I was President I tried to protect it. At the time the ecologists demanded it but they have since completely reversed their position,” he said, referring to green groups supporting the development of wind power.
France has lagged EU peers Spain and Germany, where Giscard was born, in the development of its wind power sector, mostly because of its nearly CO2-free nuclear capacity, which meets 80 percent of French electricity needs.
France aims for onshore wind energy to reach 20,000 megawatts (MW) by 2020, equivalent to Germany’s wind capacity. It currently produces some 4,000 MW from wind power and also wants to build from scratch 5,000 MW in offshore wind capacity.
“WRONG TARGET”
Giscard blasted wind power for what he called its “outrageous” lack of transparency on the fiscal and financial advantages for developers, which he compared to the subprime mortgages blamed for setting off the global financial crisis.
“When subprimes were invented in the United States, the explanation was that it would help the poor but in reality it was a scheme by banks to make profits,” he said. France subsidises wind power by setting inflated power rates at which state-owned utility EDF buys the green electricity. Wind producers sell their output to EDF at 80 euros per megawatt hour, about twice the cost of nuclear-generated power.
“I hope that the next head of EDF will be more reserved in this matter than his predecessor,” he said, referring to Henri Proglio who takes the helm of EDF on Nov. 23.
“It’s abnormal that EDF supplies a type of electricity, which is a lot more expensive than other types and that the price difference is paid by the public,” he said.
When asked how France would meet its 23-percent target for renewable energy by 2020 without using wind power, Giscard replied: “The European Union chose the wrong target.”
Giscard added that Europe had failed to agree on a target that included nuclear power mainly under the pressure of Germany, which turned its back on atomic energy 10 years ago.
It was a mistake in the battle against global warming not to include nuclear energy as the aim was to limit the quantity of CO2 emitted in the atmosphere, he said.
“In the upcoming debate in Copenhagen, I hope and I trust the (French) President will start a debate on CO2-free energies,” he said, referring to next month’s summit where nations will seek an agreement to fight climate change.
Giscard also favoured solar power.
“Solar power is still in its early stages but we can make the assumption that in 30 to 40 years we will make discoveries.”
He created in 1978 a commission for solar energy, with the aim for solar to eventually meet a substantial share of French energy needs. It currently only provides 190,000 MW hours per year, enough to supply a town of 85,000.
Giscard also called EDF’s decision to acquire part of U.S. power company Constellation Energy a “strategic error” and said he hoped Proglio would “rectify the situation.”
“Since the major risk with nuclear is security, it’s very difficult for a state company to be operator in another country, which can have a complex and different legal system… so I find it extremely unwise to expose ourselves,” he said.
(Reporting by Muriel Boselli, editing by William Hardy)
Reuters
18 November 2009
Tags: Wind power, Wind energy
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