The Rennes Administrative Court canceled the permit to build 16 wind turbines in the forest Lanouée (Morbihan), second Breton forest, citing the ecological wealth of the middle and dimensions “scale out” of the project.
The court ruled: subject to any appeal, there will be no wind farm forest Lanouée (Morbihan). The project, led by Les Mills Lohan, a subsidiary of the Canadian group Boralex, was to build 16 wind turbines with a ground area of 16 hectares, or 0.4% of the 3 800 hectare of the forest, for a total perimeter 331 hectares and an installed power of 50 MW.
The administrative court cancelled the building permits issued in February 2014 by the Prefect of Morbihan, on the advice of the public and the judge in chambers. He also canceled the operating license, clearing, and to waive the prohibition by the Environmental Code to destroy protected species.
“Biodiversity reservoir”
In his motivations, the court stressed that Lanouée forest is a “reservoir of biodiversity […] and represents a strong identity element of the territory in which it fits” .
It also builds on the conclusions of the services of the Ministry of Culture, who felt “totally incoherent project of its size out of scale with the landscape quality of this remarkable Morbihan forest to which it would irretrievably prejudiced” . “Given both the number of wind turbines with a size, peaking at 185 meters, the landscape impact of the project will be difficult to mitigate”, further states the court.
Sébastien Collet, who defends residents and the Society for the protection of landscape and aesthetics of France (SPPEF), welcomed a decision to cancel “quite exceptional” .
“53 turbines operating in the sector”
“All government services said that this place was ruled out for the wind and the judge also considers that it is not possible to build a wind farm in a remarkable forest, the second Breton forest, so that there are already 53 wind turbines operating in the sector “, he added.
According to the lawyer of the Lohans Mills, Mr. Julien Bonnat, 68 million euros have already been committed to this project, out of a total of 90 million.
“No error of law has been adopted, the court struck down the entire record and we said ‘No wind in the forest. For a file that follows the last 4 years, I find that the instruction was made very dependent “ , he said, adding that he advised his client to appeal ” in light of subjectivities decisions “ .
