Wind Power News: France
These news and opinion items are gathered by National Wind Watch to help keep readers informed about developments related to industrial wind energy. They are the products of the organizations or individuals noted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of National Wind Watch.
Wind turbine blown down… by the wind in western France
Wind is normally good news for wind turbines, but the recent high winds brought by Storm Carmen was too much for one 260-tonne machine in western France. There is only so much wind a wind turbine can take it seems. At least that was the case for one in the Vendée, western France where a 62-metre high turbine was blown over by in fierce winds on January 1st. The 260 tonne turbine was toppled in a field near the town . . . Complete story »
Une éolienne de Bouin s’est écrasée au sol | Wind turbine crashed to ground
La tempête Carmen touche en ce moment les côtes vendéennes. À Bouin, une des huit éoliennes du parc installé sur la commune est tombée. Cette éolienne de 62 mètres de hauteur s’est fracassée au sol dans le parc éolien. Sur place, les dégâts sont impressionnants. « On dirait un avion qui s’est écrasé au sol, avec beaucoup de débris partout autour. Le choc a dû être violent », décrit notre correspondant. Beaucoup de curieux se pressent sur place. Pour autant, le département . . . Complete story »
Decision day approaches for wind farm plan on Tigers’ WW1 battlefield site
A decision is looming on controversial plans to build massive wind turbines the site of a First World War battlefield where tens of thousands of British soldiers died. French firm InnoVent wants to put up three turbines, each twice the height of Big Ben, on the site of the 1915 Battle of Loos, in northern France. The Royal Leicester Regiment, known as the Tigers, lost more than 500 men in just a week of fierce fighting. A row over whether . . . Complete story »
Controversial plan to put three 650ft wind turbines on First World War battlefield where remains of fallen Lincolnshire soldiers are buried
Campaigners are urging a French energy company not to build wind turbines on the site of a First World War battlefield where 357 Lincolnshire soldiers were killed in a single day. InnoVent wants to erect three 650ft tall turbines in northern France on land where the British and French fought the Germans during the Battle of Loos from September 25 to October 18 1915. It is believed that the remains of thousands of ‘missing’ soldiers from all sides still lay . . . Complete story »
Winds of change: France faces challenges as it embraces offshore wind power
France has launched its first offshore turbine to curb reliance on nuclear and reach climate goals – France could become Europe’s second-largest wind energy producer after Germany. But the transition brings problems. Offshore wind energy produces more – and more reliable – energy than previously thought, a new study shows. Offshore wind facilities in the North and Baltic seas generate energy on 363 days of the year – more than the 340 days previously indicated, says the study commissioned by the Bremen-based Fraunhofer Institute . . . Complete story »
Pourquoi les chauves-souris ne voient-elles pas les éoliennes ?
Le chiffre a de quoi effrayer : les éoliennes en France (6 000 aujourd’hui) pourraient avoir causé la mort de 1,6 million de chauves-souris sur la période 2002-15, selon l’Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’énergie (Ademe). Si les auteurs de l’étude établissent une prudente fourchette entre… des décès entre 12 000 et 3,3 millions d’animaux, la surmortalité de cette espècedéjà déclinante est reconnue. Les chiroptères, qui chassent au crépuscule et la nuit, ne sont pourtant pas aveugles. Alors . . . Complete story »
Engie Green abandons six-turbine wind farm earmarked for the former Bullecourt battlefields, following storm of protest
“Our soldiers can rest in peace now.” That was how families welcomed the news that a wind farm proposed for the final resting place of thousands of soldiers on a World War I French battlefield, has been scrapped. French company Engie Green announced on Monday that it would abandon a six-turbine wind farm earmarked for the former Bullecourt battlefields, following a storm of protest. Warrnambool man Bill McKellar, whose uncle Mitchell McKellar is among an estimated 2300 Aussie Diggers whose . . . Complete story »
WWI diggers’ relatives celebrate decision not to build wind farm near French battlefield
The burial site of thousands of World War I soldiers is to remain undisturbed after a multinational company cancelled its plan to build a wind farm in northern France. Some 10,000 Australians were killed or injured in 1917 in the two battles of Bullecourt, and more than 2.000 of them have no known grave. The decision to shelve the project came after lobbying from families and officials in Australia and France. Ashley Starkey, the great-great nephew of Valentine Starkey, a . . . Complete story »
Australia welcomes scrapping of French wind farm on WW1 killing fields
Canberra Tuesday welcomed as “very touching” the scrapping of a planned French wind farm on the site of a World War I battlefield where thousands of Australian soldiers died. French energy company Engie Green had planned to erect turbines on the grounds of the former Bullecourt killing fields in northern France, where some 10,000 Australians were killed or wounded in 1917. Many bodies were never found, and the planned site for the wind farm is a natural burial ground near . . . Complete story »
Diggers can rest in peace after Bullecourt wind farm plan scrapped
The remains of thousands of Diggers who died in the brutal World War I battle of Bullecourt in France will remain at rest after plans to build a giant wind farm at the historic site were abandoned following a campaign from the soldiers’ families. The company that wanted to install six giant turbines at Bullecourt in northern France, where Australia suffered 10,000 casualties, now says the battleground should “remain undisturbed” more than two years after it first put forward the . . . Complete story »
