Cap d'Agde: 25 km out at sea, these 300 m high wind turbines are worrying

Comme ici à Saint-Nazaire, des champs éoliens vont s’implanter dans le golfe du Lion. Yanick Philipponnat – Tim Fox

Les projets de l’État en la matière inquiètent la municipalité, qui a fait voter une motion lors du dernier conseil municipal. 

It was within the framework of the debate on the sea, launched in November by the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP) and which ends on April 26, that a public meeting was organized last week at the Moulin des Évêques.= The subject ? The installation in the Mediterranean of 300 wind turbines by 2050.

In 2010, Gilles D’Ettore had already mobilized

We remember that already in 2010, Gilles D’Ettore, mayor of Agde and UMP deputy at the time, had fought against the implantation of 120 wind turbines off the coast of an area between Narbonne and Sète, 10 km from the coast. Nearly fifteen years later, here we are again!

The State has in fact developed a four-stage scenario by 2050. Pilot farms must see the light of day: two times three wind turbines off the coast of Port-la-Nouvelle-Gruissan (EolMed project) and Port- Barcarès-Leucate (EFGL project). Then, a commercial park off the coast of Narbonnaise and Agde (AO6), with a power of 250MW, by 2031, for 10 to 15 wind turbines depending on the technology to come and 450,000 residents fed. A field that will be tripled in 2035, with twenty to thirty more steel giants.

A wind farm 25 km from the coast

This commercial park will be located 25 km from Cap-d’Agde. Which may seem sufficient at first glance, except that these wind turbines will reach nearly 300 m in height at the tip of the blade! Thursday evening, in municipal council, the 1st deputy Sébastien Frey added a question to the agenda at the last minute in order to formulate a firm opposition to this project, supporting image, with a view from the Great Conch on these wind turbines at sea. An eloquent simulation. "It is indisputable that the landscape impact will be detrimental" it is announced in this motion. In addition, "the studies do not seem to guarantee that there will be no impact on the preservation of marine biodiversity and migration corridors. " The tax revenue argument does not hold up either, the wind turbines being located outside Agathois territorial waters. Not to mention, according to the municipality, that these wind farms "freeze access to large areas, to the detriment of fishing and boating."< /em> Finally, the tourist argument. Major. This project presents for the City "a proven and lasting risk of altering the attractiveness of the territory, whose economy is strongly dependent on the city’ tourist attractiveness." And that’s all the concern.