“The town hall does not want to ask our opinion? We will give it anyway” : since the beginning of the week, the “Lury sans éoliennes” association has been organizing a public consultation on the wind farm project carried out by the operator JPee, which provides the construction of three wind turbines overlooking the village. For Jean Tatin, the president of the association, it’s the straw that broke the camel’s back: “Lury is already surrounded by many wind turbines. So already when they are three or four kilometers from the village, it cuts out the landscape. But less than a kilometer away, it’s unacceptable!”
Against the destruction of the landscape
The main demand of the collective is the preservation of the rural landscape: “People who come to live here, seek the calm of Berry, they do not want to see their living environment spoiled by the industrialization of our countryside“. A petition against this wind farm project has already collected 270 signatures (for 380 registered on the electoral lists), but the municipal council seems to be turning a deaf ear: “for the moment we are playing the game of democratic consultation”continues Jean Tatin. “But if you have to operate in Corsica to be heard in this country, you have to tell us… and we’ll change the method!”
What about the future?
Another issue raised by the “Lury sans éolienne” collective: the long-term projection, and the future dismantling of wind infrastructure. “In 30 years _we will end up with rusty, crumbling industrial parks, like in California_“ deplores Jean Tatin. “And there will be no one left to come and dismantle them properly, because the private companies that built them will be gone, or dead!”
However, as the environmental association NégaWatt points out, each wind turbine manufacturer must ensure a provision of 50,000 euros in order to obtain a building permit : “Dismantling a wind turbine has nothing to do with dismantling a power plant!” explains Marc Jedliczka, spokesperson for NégaWatt. “98% of the components are recyclable, all that remains is to remove the concrete base. That’s what the provision of 50,000 euros is for: _even before construction, the money needed for dismantling is already there._“
Beyond the question of wind turbines, the NégaWatt collective advocates energy sobriety, ie the individual reduction of energy consumption. He will be in Châteauroux on March 31, Salle Barbara, to present his script “climate-energy”.
Berry, and in particular Indre, has experienced exponential growth in its wind farms over the past ten years. At the last census, there were 120 wind turbines installed in the Indre (the equivalent of 300MW of potential production), 52 authorized soon to be connected and 22 requests being examined. In the Cher according to the latest figures available, 60 wind turbines are connected, 55 authorized and 24 under review.