The pressing need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sometimes leads to absurd policies, as a result of politicians rushing in to be part of the action (to get the ecology vote) alongside the greedy businessmen (for whom ‘green’ is synonym to ‘profit’). This has encouraged more wind energy development, considered at present to be an indispensable source of renewable energy, as highly regarded as solar energy.
However, what is not often mentioned is the wind turbine’s visual impact, noise level (about which everyone has a right to an opinion), or efficiency, which is highly debatable if we are aiming for a durable economy.
At present, these huge machines are being quickly exhibited all over the world, from Texas to China. Germany, however, is in the lead with the largest fleet of wind turbines, boasting a total capacity of 25 000 megawatts. Other countries would like to reach similar levels: the UK plans to reach 33 000 megawatts of wind energy; the Netherlands is seeking 6 000, on off-shore; meanwhile, France wants to catch up with Germany’s capacity over the next ten years.
While these objectives appear to be considerable, they actually represent next to nothing. In Germany, all these wind farms saturating the countryside barely represent 5% of electricity usage, while nuclear electricity takes care of 25% and is definitely here to stay. In France, the wind’s properties are so poor that the capacity factor of our turbines barely reach one-eighth of maximum power output. This means that we would have to construct 1400 wind turbines a year just to handle the increase in electricity consumption or 2100 wind turbines to produce as much energy as a single nuclear reactor.
Wind energy is not reliable. It cannot be produced unless unlikely conditions are met: there must be enough wind, and not just any kind of wind, so count out anti-cyclones. Over a year, one wind turbine produces the equivalent of only 2000 hours of its maximum capacity. Also, wind energy development demands very close surveillance of meteorological forecasts and significant funding to integrate the multitude of local producers into the networks. This requires enormous subsidies (which, in France, brings the rate of return on equity capital to an average of 22% and up to to 40% at the windiest sites) which would be difficult to monitor.
To sum up, this energy is invasive and is about business opportunities. Germany has reached its maximum number of wind farms and now France is embarking on the same delirious journey. While the Montagne and Littoral laws rigourously control the construction of buildings and factories, regional authorities may develop wind farms with barely any supervision: two planning permits have been issued for wind turbines to be installed at less than 20 kilometres from Mont St-Michel. And offshore wind farms are being developed without any study of their impact on the coastal environment.
The moment has come to take a break, and weigh all the pros and cons of wind energy, before our hopes are gone with the wind.