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Released January 26, 2018 | GALWAY, IRELAND
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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The French government has announced a 10-point plant to significantly speed up the rollout of windfarms.
The plan is designed to overcome a well-organised resistance to onshore wind energy that has effectively tied up many French wind projects in court over the past decade. The new plan will effectively halve the time it takes to build a windfarm in France from seven to nine years, to three to five years--which is the average time it takes in many other European Union (EU) nations like Germany.
"It is necessary both to speed up the installation of onshore wind projects, and improve their acceptability," French junior ecology minister Sebastien Lecornu told Les Echos. "The objective is to halve the average time of proceedings: instead of seven to nine years today, we will reduce this time to three to five years, which completely changes the situation, including to mobilise funding."
The key mechanism for speeding things up will be to sweep away many of the legal avenues open to protesters.
"We will remove a level of jurisdiction for litigation--that of the administrative court in the first instance. The resort will be directly handled by the administrative courts of appeal in France and overseas territories. This is already the case for offshore wind turbines but also for cinemas with more than 300 seats for example! This will probably lead to a homogenisation of case law. The rights of the litigant will not be diminished, and the recourse in council of State will always be possible. But 70% of projects are now subject to appeal and almost all are appealing. This measure will save two to three years."
France currently has around 12.9 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind energy but has a goal of having up to 26 GW by 2023. Around 22 GW of projects have been permitted, but 70% of those are tied up in the existing appeals process. The new plan will remove this legal avenue. Other points in the plan include paying a share of taxes levied on windfarm owners to affected communities as well as how the flashing lights used at windfarms will be changed to use less invasive lighting at night.
Nicolas Hulot, French Ecology Minister, expressed his confidence in the "conclusions of this working group, which lists balanced proposals that will save time in developing wind projects while giving new tools to ease relationships between project leaders, communities and local residents ".
In recent years, France has begun to develop its offshore wind sector alongside its plans to reduce its nuclear power reliance from 75% to 50% in the coming decade. Since 2012, there have been two offshore wind tenders calling for the construction of six windfarms with a combined generating capacity of 3 GW by 2020. A third offshore tender process for the Dunkirk region off the northern coast of the country is also planned.
Last April, Industrial Info reported that one of France's first large-scale offshore windfarms was ready to start construction after the developer received all necessary permits to proceed. The 496-megawatt (MW) Saint-Brieuc project, located in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, will be the first offshore windfarm in the Brittany region of northwest France and is being developed by Ailes Marines, a joint venture owned by Spanish energy major, Iberdrola S.A. (PINK:IBDRY) (Bilbao, Spain) and Eole-RES (Avignon, France). The project will cost 2.5 billion euro ($2.7 billion). For additional information, see April 26, 2017, article - Green Light for Brittany's First Offshore Windfarm.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Our European headquarters are located in Galway, Ireland. Follow IIR Europe on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn For more information on our European coverage send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.eu or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe.
The plan is designed to overcome a well-organised resistance to onshore wind energy that has effectively tied up many French wind projects in court over the past decade. The new plan will effectively halve the time it takes to build a windfarm in France from seven to nine years, to three to five years--which is the average time it takes in many other European Union (EU) nations like Germany.
"It is necessary both to speed up the installation of onshore wind projects, and improve their acceptability," French junior ecology minister Sebastien Lecornu told Les Echos. "The objective is to halve the average time of proceedings: instead of seven to nine years today, we will reduce this time to three to five years, which completely changes the situation, including to mobilise funding."
The key mechanism for speeding things up will be to sweep away many of the legal avenues open to protesters.
"We will remove a level of jurisdiction for litigation--that of the administrative court in the first instance. The resort will be directly handled by the administrative courts of appeal in France and overseas territories. This is already the case for offshore wind turbines but also for cinemas with more than 300 seats for example! This will probably lead to a homogenisation of case law. The rights of the litigant will not be diminished, and the recourse in council of State will always be possible. But 70% of projects are now subject to appeal and almost all are appealing. This measure will save two to three years."
France currently has around 12.9 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind energy but has a goal of having up to 26 GW by 2023. Around 22 GW of projects have been permitted, but 70% of those are tied up in the existing appeals process. The new plan will remove this legal avenue. Other points in the plan include paying a share of taxes levied on windfarm owners to affected communities as well as how the flashing lights used at windfarms will be changed to use less invasive lighting at night.
Nicolas Hulot, French Ecology Minister, expressed his confidence in the "conclusions of this working group, which lists balanced proposals that will save time in developing wind projects while giving new tools to ease relationships between project leaders, communities and local residents ".
In recent years, France has begun to develop its offshore wind sector alongside its plans to reduce its nuclear power reliance from 75% to 50% in the coming decade. Since 2012, there have been two offshore wind tenders calling for the construction of six windfarms with a combined generating capacity of 3 GW by 2020. A third offshore tender process for the Dunkirk region off the northern coast of the country is also planned.
Last April, Industrial Info reported that one of France's first large-scale offshore windfarms was ready to start construction after the developer received all necessary permits to proceed. The 496-megawatt (MW) Saint-Brieuc project, located in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, will be the first offshore windfarm in the Brittany region of northwest France and is being developed by Ailes Marines, a joint venture owned by Spanish energy major, Iberdrola S.A. (PINK:IBDRY) (Bilbao, Spain) and Eole-RES (Avignon, France). The project will cost 2.5 billion euro ($2.7 billion). For additional information, see April 26, 2017, article - Green Light for Brittany's First Offshore Windfarm.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, six offices in North America and 12 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Our European headquarters are located in Galway, Ireland. Follow IIR Europe on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn For more information on our European coverage send inquiries to info@industrialinfo.eu or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe.
