Par Maximilien Regnier
Published on 27 Jul 22 at 14:15
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This study was carried out by Hello Watt, and concerns only the onshore wind turbines and not those placed at sea, greatly demanded by the environmental parties during the last presidential campaign.
The objective is to obtain quantifiable data on the number and power of wind turbines installed in each territorial entity in France: by municipality, department or region.
Wind power, a sector of the future
In 2022 and 2023, the wind power sector contributed to increasing the revenues of the State of €7.7 billion. This can be explained by two factors, because it is not usually the case: the exhaustion of the French nuclear fleet with EDF power plants, and the war in Ukraine, which has greatly increased energy prices. , in addition to inflation due to currency fluctuations. As a result, wind energy is today less expensive than market prices.
With this in mind, the Hello Watt study has just taken stock of the wind farm, in order to know where it would be possible to further developtaking into account environmental and energy needs, as well as opposition to the wind sector.
Eure-et-Loir well placed…
On a French scale, Hauts-de-France is by far the region with the most wind turbines installed (1,863), with a total installed capacity of 4 245 MW, ahead of Grand-Est and its 1,846 turbines for 3,967 MW. The podium is completed by Occitania.
Why these regions in particular? The survey, dated July 2022, focuses on the strength and regularity of the windsas well as the available land, i.e. the low population density and little agricultural breeding.
Eure-et-Loir is it the seventh highest ranked department, with 282 wind turbines placed. In terms of total installed power, it is even sixth, behind the Somme which has 747, Marne, Aube, Aisne and Pas-de-Calais. These departments are all located in the north of the country, a territory where the wind is strong, in any case beyond the French average.
–… but too alone?
With an increase in scale, it is now the classification by region that appears. Here too, the Centre-Val de Loire does not look bad, with a fifth place, behind the aforementioned podium.
The region has a total of 570 turbines, but its problem is its heterogeneity. After a quick calculation, it turns out that Eure-et-Loir alone counts 49% of the regional wind farm. The latter is the only department in the region to have a wind turbine presence density higher than the national average.
At the bottom of the ranking, we find Île-de-France and its 50 wind turbines, as well as Corsica, which has 30 turbines throughout its territory.
It is also interesting to compare these results with the map of wind farms in France provided by ADEME in 2011: eleven years ago, the power of wind turbines installed was 540 MW in the Centre-Val de Loire region, against 1262 MW today. For their part, the Hauts-de-France went from some 1100 MW to more than 4200 today, an increase of +255%. The evolution is therefore not the same according to the territories.
Rentable et recyclable
Finally, the study draws up the criteria that can have an impact on decisions to install wind turbines: the acceptance of these installations by the populations and associations, the administrative procedures and their validation by the local authorities, the demand in energy in these territories as well as the replacement of pre-existing installations. It seems that these criteria are met, or not, in the North of the country, which seems to be favorable to the massive installation of wind turbines.
Especially since ADEME, in its March 2022 report, devoted to this greener energy, emphasizes that wind power is an economically viable sector, but also a job creator. Wind turbines are 95% recyclableand to continue with respect for the environment, the agency evokes the couple wind/solar. Unlike solar, wind produces more in winter, which makes it a particularly relevant association.
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