Unexpected Wind Power ‘Potentials’: The Art of Planning with Inherited Socio-Geographical Configurations (France)

Abstract

The deployment of wind power induces deep changes in landscapes and territories. The politicization of wind power generates new ad hoc collectives. In the French case, because of the institutional framing resulting from landscape and wind power policies (centralization, feed-in tariffs, private developers), collectives of emerging wind power landscapes are regularly set apart from wind power planning processes. This paper explores the extent to which these recompositions and new collectives could be part of emerging wind power potentials. The empirical evidence stemming from our case studies shows that wind power technology, like any other technology, is not endowed with a potential per se. Wind power potentials differ – ‘capitalistic’, ‘controversial’, ‘negotiated’, ‘conditional’ – depending on planning processes and inherited configurations. The notions of striated space and smooth space enable us to adopt a relational perspective on these emerging collectives and to account for the role of inherited socio-geographical configurations and planning processes.

Key Words:

• wind power
• potential
• planning
• inherited socio-geographical configurations
• striated space and smooth space

Notes

1 The French feed-in tariff was 82€ MWh in 2012 for onshore wind power for ten years, with progressive reduction over five years. This value has remained more or less the same since the first tariff order in 2001.

2 Minefi (2002). Programmation pluriannuelle des investissements de production électrique. Période 2000–2010, 8 p.

3 Minefi (2006). Programmation pluriannuelle des investissements de production électrique. Période 2005–2015, 105 p.

4 Meeddat (2007). Rapport de synthèse du Groupe 1, Grenelle de l'environnement, 27 septembre, Paris.

5 European wind energy association (2013) Wind in power. 2012 European statistics.

6 France is placed after Germany (31.3 GW), Spain (22.7 GW), United Kingdom (8.4 GW) and Italy (8.1 GW).

7 For instance, this hierarchy of potentials structures the approach of the IPCC mitigation potentials (see IPCC-WGIII 2001, chapter 5).

8 For more details about the methodology and fieldwork, see the cited papers.

9 ‘Ventville’ is a pseudonym, chosen by the authors for the purposes of this paper.

10 Including the fact that France has a low-CO2 electricity mix (dominance of nuclear energy).

11 Région Languedoc Roussillon (2003) Schéma régional éolien, 4 volumes, Narbonne; PNRN, 2003 Charte du Développement Eolien – Projet de Parc Naturel Régional de la Narbonnaise en Méditerranée (2003), available (on 08/25/08), http://www.parc-naturel-narbonnaise.fr/en_actions/maitrise_de_l_energie_et_energies_renouvelables/charte_eolienne; Préfecture de l'Aude (2005) Plan de gestion des paysages de lAude vis-à-vis des projets éoliens, Narbonne.

12 ‘Re-powering’ consists in dismantling an existing wind farm and in increasing its capacity by installing new, bigger and more powerful wind turbines. It is currently the way that countries such as Germany and Denmark increase their wind power capacity.

13 http://aude.lpo.fr/life-consavicor/accueil.htm.