During the televised debate between Gabriel Attal, Manuel Bompard and Jordan Bardella on June 25, the president of the National Rally said he was firmly opposed to wind turbines. He wants a moratorium on the construction of new wind projects, because “25% of the time wind energy runs idle”.
This is incorrect. A wind turbine produces electricity 75% to 95% of the time on average, underlines the Ecological Transition Agency (Ademe) in a document available online, Understanding everything: wind power. Why doesn’t it run all the time? Because it depends on the strength of the wind: below 10 km/h, it is insufficient to start the wind turbines, and in the event of too strong winds, the wind turbines are stopped to avoid any risk of breakage or too rapid wear. .
“Infrequent” stops for too strong winds
Ademe indicates that these shutdowns due to excessively strong winds are “infrequent” in France and do not exceed ten days per year per wind turbine. Wind farms are generally installed on sites with wind speeds above 20 km/h.
In 2023, wind turbines provided “more than 50 TWh in France, or 10% of our electricity”, and the equivalent of 11.2 million French homes, also responded to Jordan Bardella on professionals in renewable electrical energies.
