Citizen wind power, a lever for locally managing the "green wealth of winds"

At a bend in a country road, in the middle of fields, two white masts rise to 120 meters. The steel rods of the third lie flat, surrounded by cranes beginning their assembly. The fourth is still under tarpaulins.

The wind turbines at the Féeole community park are expected to begin spinning in May, 15 years after the project was launched.

"When this area was declared a ZDE (wind development zone, editor's note), we knew there would be candidates. Surely private ones, French or perhaps German, as elsewhere. We said to ourselves, if we had to have one, we might as well keep the green wealth of our winds local," recalls Michel Lemonnier, a member of the citizens' group behind the project.

For them, the park also represents a "way of taking ownership of the energy transition": "Electricity, before being interested in its production, was not an issue."

The group, which has become a company, now brings together 168 citizens, who contributed €520.000 to the project—out of the €24 million investment, primarily financed by bank loans. Other shareholders include the departmental union Energ'iV and the Énergie Partagée movement, which supports and finances citizen renewable energy production projects.

The park must produce 36 GWh per year, or 45% of the needs of the community of communes.

"Dialogue"

In France, 16 community parks are already in operation, two are under construction and 22 are under development, according to Énergie Partagée.

On the investor side, while the approach "guarantees stable income," profitability "is often not the primary motivation for citizens," noted Ademe in 2024.

They see other benefits such as "economic and energy resources for their territory (...) the maintenance and creation of local jobs, the development of new skills in the territory..."

These arguments resonated in Andilly-les-Marais, in Charente-Maritime. In 2015, the town's mayor rejected a private wind power developer, citing a lack of commitment and benefits for his community. A few months later, he launched a call for expressions of interest, with citizen participation included in the specifications.

The Valorem group was selected as the project developer and launched it alongside a collective interest cooperative, Coopec, which currently has around 350 members, and an investment fund from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The park is expected to open in 2024.

"The advantage of community-led wind power is also dialogue. The projects raise legitimate questions among local residents, hence the importance of public meetings, acoustic studies in homes, field visits... A whole organization and availability that is sometimes found in the private sector, sometimes not," explains David Clausse, director of Energ'iV.

recourse

The fact remains that community-based wind power does not guarantee unanimity among local residents: in Riaillé, northeast of Nantes, a wind farm project launched more than 10 years ago by the company Eola (800 citizens and two wind farm projects) is currently at a standstill, subject to two administrative appeals.

In their petition, seen by AFP, a dozen local residents point to "excessive damage to the landscape," the concentration of wind projects in the same area, "insufficient" studies on the noise impact of the project, and the threat they believe it poses to certain birds.

"Our primary goal has always been to contribute to the ecological transition. We're not in a profit-driven approach, contrary to what has been said. We want to produce green energy, and if there's a bonus, all the better," says Philippe Branchereau, one of the citizens behind the project.

In Martigné-Ferchaud, the project was "well accepted" by its neighbors, says Michel Lemonnier. However, a handful of opponents filed an appeal, halting the process for four years.

With just a few weeks to go before the launch, citizens are now eagerly awaiting the sight of their "wind turbines" in motion.