Court rejects major onshore wind project in the Ardennes

The Court notes that the park "located on a vast plateau composed of agricultural land, with little woodland, (...) thus generates strong visibility", highlighting the "significant number of wind turbines within a radius of 10 km".

The project, which has been underway for over 20 years, plans to build a wind farm of 63 turbines, with a capacity of 226 megawatts, and a production equivalent to the annual consumption of around 250.000 inhabitants, which would make it one of the largest onshore wind farms in France.

In a decision on Thursday, the court annulled the order that issued "a single authorization equivalent to a building permit" for 63 wind turbines in the municipalities of Bignicourt, Cauroy, Hauviné, Juniville, Neuville-en-Tourne-à-Fuy, Mont-Saint-Rémy, Ville-sur-Retourne, to the Mont des Quatre Faux Wind Farm Company in June 2017.

The local residents argued that "the visual impact of the wind farm (...) should be assessed taking into account the cumulative effects of all the farms built."

The project leaders, EDF Renewables and Renner Energies, have two months to appeal to the Council of State.

EDF Renewables confirmed to AFP that it had "taken note of the decision" and "the Mont des Quatre Faux wind farm team will analyze all the elements of this decision before deciding on a possible appeal."

At first instance, in 2020, the administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne rejected an appeal by local residents.

The court considers that although "defects" highlighted during a first appeal hearing have "been corrected", these orders remain "tainted by an irregularity".

"The alert thresholds accepted for assessing the phenomenon of visual saturation have been largely exceeded," she continued in a press release. "Neither the terrain, nor the vegetation, nor any mitigation measures could mask the wind turbines" with a blade height of 200 meters and "mitigate the effects of encirclement and visual saturation for residents."

According to the court, the project "significantly worsens the encirclement of the horizons of these villages" and "these impacts do not appear to be able to be regularized without a very significant change to the project which would not be limited to the removal of a few wind turbines, and would require a new impact study to be carried out."