“This anti-wind feeling is no longer relevant in a world where we are in urgent need of energy every day,” the director general of Engie told journalists, on the sidelines of a visit to a site of the Bretelle and Echalot onshore wind farms, in Côte-d’Or. For her, the existence of an “anti-wind feeling must have taken root with projects that were poorly carried out and which dragged the industry down”.
Accelerate
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of these wind farms in Côte-d’Or, a project started in 2003 but whose operation only began in 2012 due to various appeals, the Director General welcomed the contrary to the “appropriation” of these installations, the result of “consultation” work and a method that aims to be “exemplary”. “On the dismantling (of wind turbines at the end of operation), we must be exemplary, we remove everything,” she explained.
The annual production of these parks of around 80,000 MWh/year makes it possible to supply 37,000 people with electricity, “i.e. the equivalent of nearly 1/4 of the population of the city of Dijon”, according to Engie. While the “demand for electricity will explode”, “we will need nuclear but that will not be enough, we will need a lot of renewable energies, solar, wind, at sea and on land. It’s important to say that onshore wind power will contribute to this balanced energy mix,” added MacGregor.
The government presented a bill on Monday to accelerate the development of renewable energies in order to catch up with France, a text focused on solar and wind power at sea.