Wind turbines are no longer really popular in Greater Reims. By 2030, the urban community intends to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 22% and achieve 41% of renewable energy in its overall consumption. The city of Reims has launched a consultation, until February 28, in order to define areas favorable to renewable energies. And, unsurprisingly, its very summary questionnaire only focuses on photovoltaics, which allows solar radiation to be transformed into electricity using shade houses or panels on the ground, and methanization, which consists of exploiting heat underground using heat pumps.
Exit the wind turbines! “The urban configuration of the city does not allow zoning favorable to wind power and methanization,” specifies the investigation. However, the territory of Greater Reims, which has nearly 70% agricultural land and 16.5% natural land, has wind power potential. For the moment, there are only two parks and eleven masts which inject around 40 GWh of electricity into the network, or twice as much as the 33,000 photovoltaic panels installed north of Reims and put into service in 2021. But , according to the territorial climate air energy plan of Grand Reims, there will not be one more wind turbine in the years to come.
The low carbon strategy, adopted by elected officials in 2022, makes the “strategic choice of developing certain sectors and the choice not to retain other sectors such as wind power and hydroelectricity”. This decision is justified by “a strong reservation about the development of wind power” raised by elected officials, as well as by the wind charter of the Hillsides, Houses and Cellars of Champagne, the property included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. This in fact proposes an exclusion zone with regard to wind power which extends well beyond the Saint-Nicaise hill and the few Reims cellars listed by UNESCO.
To increase the production of renewable energies in the region by 50% by 2030, the low carbon strategy of Grand Reims counts on solar energy (+ 850% of energy produced), methanization (+ 760% of production) , the biomass/wood sector (+ 150% production) and heat pumps (+ 100%), but not on new wind turbines, therefore. Will these factories and these thousands of panels be better received by the population than the masts and their propellers?