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

Open Access

Abstract

© 2008 Elsevier Ltd ; International audience ; The 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. ; Le développement de l'énergie éolienne en France illustre de façon exemplaire l'écart qui peut survenir entre l'instrument d'une politique publique et son efficacité. Malgré sept années de soutien à la filière éolienne par un tarif d'achat parmi les plus élevés au monde, les capacités installées restent très faibles dans l'hexagone. Cela est notamment du à une tradition administrative de protection du paysage dont l'influence est significative sur la définition des potentiels éoliens. Aussi, il est important d'examiner comment les enjeux de paysage sont intégrés aux processus de production des planifications éoliennes ; ce que nous proposons d'étudier à partir du cas de ...