A French Court has ordered the wipeout of a fleet of wind turbines that have been wiping out golden eagles and which long ago wiped out the ability of locals to sleep peacefully in their own homes.
The turbines in question have been slaughtering birds, including golden eagles, for years incensing conservation groups, as well as driving neighbours nuts with a cacophony of thumping, grinding low-frequency noise and wrecking a once picturesque landscape.
Needless to say, the locals are ecstatic, as Hannah Thompson reports below.
Noise, bird deaths: Windfarm ordered to close for first time in France
The Connexion
Hannah Thompson
13 December 2023
A windfarm in southern France has been ordered to close due to noise complaints from residents and the effect it is having on birds, in the first closure of its kind in the country.
The managing company of the site – Énergie Renouvelable du Languedoc (ERL), a subsidiary of the German group EnW – now has 15 months to dismantle the turbines and close the Bernargues windfarm in Lunas (Hérault, Occitanie), the Nîmes Court of Appeal ruled on Friday, December 8.
The company must return the land to its original state. If it misses the deadline, it will be subject to a fine of €3,000 per day for 180 days, for every day it is late.
A court in Montpellier had already ordered the wind turbines to be dismantled in February 2021, but the Montpellier court of appeal overturned that ruling in June of the same year.
The associations took the case to the Court of Cassation, and in January 2023, it overturned the decision, referring the case back to the Nîmes Court of Appeal.
The case centred on several complaints from bird and animal welfare associations about the negative effect the windfarm was having on protected birds in the area, and residents who have complained about noise nuisance from the farm since it first opened in 2016.
Two planning permission applications had also been refused for the site.
Bird deaths
The bird in question is the golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos, ‘aigle royal’ in French). Last April, one of these rare birds was found dead at the base of a wind turbine, and the welfare associations estimate that the turbine’s blades have been responsible for the death of more than a thousand birds in the area.
The site is built on an area that is home to many of the eagles, said Marjolaine Villey-Migraine, spokesperson for biodiversity activism group le Collectif pour la protection des paysages de la biodiversité 34-12.
“The golden eagle is unique, it hunts on 150 km², this is its territory,” she told BFMTV. “This has mainly been a fight for biodiversity, and that is where we have been vindicated [with this court decision].”
Resident noise complaints
Residents in the immediate surrounding area have long complained about the noise from the windfarm.
“The nuisance in summer is really unpleasant. It’s good that [the company] must remove them,” said Marion-Laure Jessel, a resident and member of the group fighting against the windfarm, to BFMTV.
Nicolas Gallon, lawyer for the group of associations, said: “This site was built on the basis of a planning permission that was annulled by the administrative court.
“A few months after construction was completed, the administrative court annulled the planning permission because it considered that there were shortcomings in what is known as ‘the impact study’,” he said.
He added that the chance of the company appealing against the decision – or its success if it does – were slim, “because the Court of Cassation has already handed down a ruling previously”.
The company has not responded to media requests for comment.
Turbine opposition
It comes after a court in Toulouse ruled in 2021 that six wind turbines near a couple’s farmhouse had caused them physical, emotional and financial distress; and a case in 2022 when locals in Brittany won their appeal against the building of XXL wind turbines.
The court recognised the turbines’ capacity to ‘damage the landscape and the amenities of the surrounding homes’ in the village.
However, this is the first time that a company has had to close its windfarm and return the land back to its original state following a court ruling.
The Connexion
STOP THESE THINGS 
Have an awful problem with spinner trash almost 3 years old now to close to our house in Buffoonistan, TX.
How close were the setbacks from houses?
What was the decimals noise factor from the setback trash?
Appreciate if anyone having knowledge of these atrocities to reply.
“If it misses the deadline, it will be subject to a fine of €3,000 per day for 180 days”
Insufficient, no incentive whatsoever compared to cost of removal and restitution.
Needs to double for every 180 days it isn’t accomplished.