after a ministerial meeting between the ministry of the ecological Transition and the ministry of the Armed forces on 18 January, it has had to release more than 9,000 square kilometres in its area of flight in France, in order to allow room for future locations of wind turbines. After an initial reduction of 14% areas overview in 2014, the interministerial decision takes away this time to the airmen 13.3% of the surface of the training areas, which cover themselves 20% of the hexagon. A new victory for the wind energy sector, which is denounced by its opponents, and that poses some issues in terms of national security.
zones overview “optimized” to allow for the development of wind
The new zones conducive to the development of wind power are presented in a document of 29 January, available online on the website of the Ministry of the Armed forces. Two types of airline sector were examined in detail: the Training Areas, a Very Low Altitude or SETBA (flights below 500 feet), and areas of Flight Tactics (VOLTAC), which relate to the combat helicopters, at altitudes ranging from the surface to 500 feet.
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On the different cards are marked in green the new “spaces where the operational constraints at the tactical level, armed forces are not opposed to wind power projects that will be studied case by case in the light of other constraints”. Many zones and “optimized” are located in the English Channel, the Dawn, Morvan, Creuse, Ardèche, Drôme, Eure-et-Loir, in the South, etc, Each map is accompanied by a list of geographical coordinates specifying the precise contours of the areas identified.
An example of the areas “in favour” of wind turbines, in green, here in an area of flight in the Ardèche. Department of the Armies – capture Of potential problems for the detection of aircraft?
This new reduction of the areas overview is the result of negotiations begun several years ago between the military and civil servants of the ecology. In recent years, the army has seen a dim view of the proliferation of wind turbines on the territories it used to fly over, to the point of exercising several vétos on implementation projects. In 2014, a general of the air force stressed on France television the “impacts on the security increasingly important,” the wind, always the most high and many, and a source of danger during flights at low altitude.
More serious, they could disrupt radar coverage, with possible problems for the detection of aircraft. In 2014, the general Directorate of Armament had asked ONERA, the centre for aerospace research of French, a demonstrator of disturbances of wind turbines on radar systems, electromagnetic, for “to decide objectively on the settlements in the future”.
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on The 27th of December last, a question was asked by senator Alain Fouché to the minister for the Armed forces Florence Parly, asking for the publication of the work of the ONERA. No effect on the willingness of the government: in a press release published yesterday Thursday, the minister “welcomed” the report on the reduction of the areas of overflight, “which promotes an environmental policy that is ambitious and consistent with the operational needs of the French armed forces”.
For opponents, the ministry is in the hands of a windfarm lobby
opponents of the proliferation of wind turbines point of their side, the closure of the ministry of the ecological Transition, and the domination of the “windfarm lobby” in-house. Jean-Louis Butré, president of the Federation for Sustainable Environment, found the decision “catastrophic” to national security, but is not surprised beyond measure, and finds that despite the warnings of ecological, economic and industrial development of the sector seems to be “engraved in stone” in the department.
