2024-01-15 03:46:52
Between appeals from local residents or associations, pressure from companies and even personalities, the question of wind turbines in Indre-et-Loire guarantees us one of the most passionate political soap operas in the department. This start of 2024 is no exception to the rule. Atmosphere.
Friday January 12, a TF1 microphone is placed in front of the face of the prefect of Indre-et-Loire, on the terrace of the Château d’Amboise. There, the State representative in the department comments on an unprecedented experience on this scale: he came to attend a simulation of the installation of wind turbines, to see if it might spoil the panorama from the historic monument. If the issue interests our colleagues from a national media outlet it is because the stakes are high. Even TV host Stéphane Bern got involved, calling on Emmanuel Macron to try to benefit from presidential support to cancel the project.
Reminder of the facts: like 21 other French departments, Touraine does not have any wind turbines. An otherwise unique case in Centre-Val de Loire. However, according to developers, the area has several areas suitable for the installation of masts that can produce electricity using the wind. The problem is that no case is unanimous, and either the justice system dismisses the supporting companies, or they end up becoming discouraged by the extreme slowness of the procedures.
It must be said that the anti-wind turbines in Tours are particularly well organized. Armed with their arguments once morest the devaluation of houses or, better, for the protection of protected species such as the black storks of South Touraine, they managed to convince a number of elected officials, neighbors and magistrates. Thus, despite support from the State, all the projects currently proposed in the south of the department are at a standstill, in the appeal phase or debunked by the courts. For some, legal back and forths are still possible but one certainty remains: we will still have to wait very long months or even years before we see wind turbines growing in this sector. If they ever appear there.
Faced with the lockdown in South Touraine, wind power promoters are therefore trying other strategies. As such, the Auzouer-en-Touraine Oratorio project is innovative. 4 masts approximately 140m high are planned by the company Energex on the heights of Amboisie, in order to produce electricity. Less high than traditional wind turbines, often exceeding 200m, they have some arguments to avoid too much controversy. It was therefore without counting on Stéphane Bern, ardent defender of historical heritage in his TV shows and very involved in several issues in Centre-Val de Loire, where he partly resides.
With the support of the Foundation managing the Château d’Amboise, he benefited from its media support to shell the potential Oratorio construction site, estimating that we would see the wind turbines from the Château d’Amboise, the Chanteloup pagoda or even the Château de Chaumont -sur-Loire… and that this might even lead to the declassification of the Loire Valley from the UNESCO world heritage list. Faced with these big words, and this threat 23 years following obtaining the prestigious label, the prefecture was forced to react. The institution therefore suspended the agreement it had just given to the sponsoring company, subjecting it to a visual expertise.
It was this experience that took place this Friday, January 12. A time announced, Stéphane Bern was not there but the St Louis Foundation administering Amboise, yes, just like the prefect, the media or the independent committee responsible for issuing a report on the file. In total there were around fifty people. In gray and cold weather, they all came for the sole purpose of scanning the horizon. There, 15km further north, on the edge of the sector protected by UNESCO, two balloons rose into the air at the planned height of the wind turbines. The challenge: trying to see them from the belvedere.
Clearly, to the naked eye, several observers believe that it was impossible despite their good eyes. You needed binoculars to distinguish the airships, and even then you had to look a little. The prefect therefore commented that there was no visual impact, leaving the door open for authorization since we cannot really say that tourists will be ostensibly bothered by the wind turbines, even in good weather (we cannot won’t really see them on Instagram stories). But the opponents are not giving up because according to them, seeing them with binoculars is a sufficient argument.
We are now awaiting the final decision from Touraine prefect Patrice Latron, which might come in February. In both cases, we know that it will be followed by legal proceedings before the administrative court. Then, once the decision is rendered, another appeal to the court of cassation. We haven’t heard the last of Oratorio. As such, the meeting supposed to bring everyone into agreement was, unsurprisingly, a predicted failure.
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