Golden eagle killed by a wind turbine: prosecutors request confirmation of the one-year closure of the wind farm

On Monday, December 8, the public prosecutor requested that the Montpellier Court of Appeal confirm the one-year shutdown of the Bernagues wind farm in northern Hérault, considering its operators responsible for the death of a golden eagle in 2023.

The Advocate General also requested confirmation of the other aspects of the decision taken in April by the Montpellier Criminal Court, namely the conviction of the company Energie Renouvelable du Languedoc (ERL) to a fine of 200.000 euros, of which 100.000 was suspended, and of its director, François Daumard, to a fine of 40.000 euros, of which 20.000 was suspended.

ERL, a subsidiary of the Valeco group, which operates seven wind turbines on the Escandorgue massif, on the foothills of the Massif Central, and its manager are being prosecuted for having harmed the conservation of protected non-domestic animal species.

"The events occurred due to gross negligence," the public prosecutor stated, emphasizing that the company had decided to install and operate this wind farm "fully aware of the presence of a breeding pair of golden eagles."

On January 10, 2023, at around 08:15 AM, a golden eagle equipped with a GPS, flying at 50 km/h, collided with a blade of one of the seven wind turbines in Bernagues.

After being hit, the eagle "fell heavily" at the foot of the wind turbine, where it was found six days later.

The bird, which belongs to a protected species, was the breeding male of a pair that had established its nest as early as 2008 three kilometers from the place where ERL built its wind turbines in 2016, according to France Nature Environnement (FNE), one of the six associations civil parties in this case.

In his closing argument, one of the defense lawyers, Pierre-Antoine Aldigier, pleaded for acquittal, arguing that the collision "was not the result of negligence, much less gross negligence." "The entire system was validated by the authorities," the lawyer emphasized.

"We deplore the accident, we are deeply affected by it, but we had done everything, we had put in place a bird detection system (SDA), we were convinced that we were not taking any risks," explained ERL boss François Daumard before the appeals court.

The decision was deferred until February 5th.