Wind power planning in France (Aveyron), from state regulation to local planning

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe development of wind energy in France presents an exemplary case of contrast between the policy instrument and its effectiveness in terms of installed wind power capacity. After 7 years of one of the highest feed-in tariffs in the world, the installed capacity in France is still very low. This is notably due to a diffuse pattern of administrative landscape protection which impacts on the construction of wind power potential. In turn, the pace of wind power development can be understood only by looking in more detail at the way in which landscape is dealt with in local planning processes. This paper examines the question using the case of Aveyron in southern France. We follow the shifting ways in which landscape is enrolled in wind power planning, in a context where new planning instruments favor an incipient decentralization in wind power policy. The case points to a change in both the networks and the concepts involved in the design of landscape representations that underlie the construction of wind power potential. We show that this change has been forced by the far-reaching and decentralized visual impacts of wind power technology, suggesting that technology is recomposing the social as part of its development process and questioning the very meaning and perception that is given to landscape.

Network management and renewable energy development: An analytical framework with empirical illustrations

“…A final example comes from a study by Nadai and Labussiere [66], which examines wind power development in the region of Aveyron in southern France. As wind power development took off in the region, a new organizational arrangement was created, including both government agencies dealing with roads and infrastructure, environment, industry, cultural heritage, as well as non-administrative entities such as a bird watchers organization and the Regional Park and government entities.…”

Renewable Energies and European Landscapes

“…This gradual shift from a qualitative landscape issue to a zoning logic (favorable, unfavorable, or negative) certainly answered to the need of administrative instructors for rationality and objectivity in the face of pressure coming from wind power developers (Nadaï and Labussière 2009 ). The approach translated wind power issues into zoning through several operations: the defi nition of landscape "types" based on morphology and heritage values, the mapping of regulatory constraints, and the addition of buffer zones so as to compensate for regulatory insuffi ciencies in the face of the exceptionally far-reaching covisibilities imposed by industrial wind turbines.…”

Éléments pour une prospective du milieu

“…510 En Aveyron, les services de l'État ont élaboré dans l'urgence, faute de doctrine au niveau national, une planifi cation éolienne par accumulation de contraintes régle-mentaires (Nadaï et Labussière, 2009). Cette planifi cation oriente par défaut l'implantation des projets éoliens dans les délaissés patrimoniaux et produit, ce faisant, des contre-performances paysagères, des covisibilités inattendues avec des monuments protégés ou encore des effets de surdensité.…”