The issue of environmental impacts is a “recurrent concern” in France in public debates on offshore parks.
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The protest seems to come from all sides. ELUS, Fishermen, Associations … The wind farm project off the island of Oléron (Charente-Maritime), for which a public debate has just ended at the end of February, largely federates against it. Beyond its impact on landscapes or the economy, there is the question of its consequences for the environment, while its layout perimeter is located in a Natura 2000 area, in a marine natural park and on a lane. migration. “This park would thus tens of thousands of marine and coastal birds. The energy transition can not be done on the back of biodiversity”, denounces the league for the protection of birds.
The concerns expressed in Oléron are not new: according to the National Commission of the Public Debate, which has set out the assessment of fourteen debates and consultations on the offshore wind organized since 2010, the issue of environmental impacts is “anxiety. recurrent “public opinion and” France still does not have sufficient data.
Yet, if the country is lagging behind for the development of offshore wind – the first wind turbines should be commissioned in the spring off Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) – Europe has A real feedback on the subject: More than 5,400 wind turbines in twelve countries are connected to the network. These parks resulted in regular follow-up, which made it possible to establish a solid knowledge base. “Northern countries are monitoring marine ecosystems for twenty years: if there were spectacular ecological changes, they were seen, Estime Antoine Carlier, specialist in benthic invertebrates at Ifremer. The great conclusions are rather reassuring, even If we do not have to settle for it. “
Bubble curtains
In Belgium, where nine parks are active, Steven Degraer coordinated An important report, published in 2020 , over a decade of scientific monitoring. “Even if the species are different, the types of impacts, in any case on sandy soils, will be largely the same in France and in other Nordic countries or in the United States,” says this specialist in marine ecology at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences.
According to these follow-ups, it is during the work phase that the changes are the most marked: to push wind turbines in the soil generates a significant noise. The species that can flee the zone. “Noise can have an impact on organisms over large areas, but this effect is temporary and reversible, notes Antoine Carlier. Once the work is completed, the species come back.”
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