Photovoltaic power plant on the Lure mountain: the State and the Boralex company condemned on appeal

Administrative judges ruled in favor of several environmental associations, initially dismissed at first instance, which contested a decree taken in 2020 by the prefect of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, in the French Prealps, granting Boralex an exemption from the bans destruction, intentional disturbance or degradation of specimens and habitats of protected animal species.

“No alternative solution for implementing the project beyond the municipal territory was sought (...) while the area identified by the municipality was not artificialized,” explained the Court in its judgment, consulted by the AFP.

“The existence of several projects to install photovoltaic parks in progress or under study in the immediate vicinity nevertheless suggests that alternatives existed,” they added, therefore accusing the prefect of having “committed an error of appreciation” in granting this exemption.

The State and Boralex will each have to pay 1.000 euros to the Friends of the Mountain of Lure association (Amilure) which brought the appeal.

Almost finished, the work on this site, which has been under construction for several months, was due to end soon. Planned on 17 hectares at the gates of the Luberon Regional Natural Park, near Cruis, this power plant with 20.000 solar panels must produce 26 GWh of green energy per year, or the annual electricity consumption of around 12.000 inhabitants, according to its promoter.

However, hundreds of trees had to be felled on this plot, sold by the village of Cruis for rent, well exposed to the sun and offering excellent potential energy yield. The site is part of a preserved natural forest area (Luberon-Lure) integrated since 2010 into the UNESCO biosphere reserve network.

"The cancellation of the protected species exemption does not call into question Boralex's right to operate the Cruis solar power plant. It also does not call into question our presence on the site nor the finishing work on the plant, no concerned by this exemption, protected species,” Boralex told AFP.

"We wonder about the practical consequences, with the State services, of this cancellation", however tempered the lawyer of this Canadian company, Me Antoine Guiheux, specifying that Boralex would "probably" appeal to the Court of Cassation.

“It is a victory for the associative movement against the State and its complacency with industrialists, when it was possible to install these panels on already degraded land (...) instead of sacrificing remarkable biodiversity,” reacted Pierre Lavoie, member of the Amilure collegial office.

“This judgment is suspensive and concretely Boralex can no longer do anything, exploit anything,” judged Pierrot Pantel, ecological engineer and coordinator of environmental struggles.

Confident that a possible decision by the Council of State would go in favor of environmental associations, he is already considering "condemning Boralex for ecological damage by requesting restoration of the site", even if "this will take some time".