On this foggy October day, around fifteen residents of L'Hermenault (Vendée) sit around a table. Through the bay window, we see a slightly undulating field. This is where mobile photovoltaic shade structures should be installed. A project that David Fleau, local resident and municipal councilor at town hall, discovered in June 2023, “when the TSE company and the owner of the land presented us with the draft”. At the next municipal council, TSE requests the opinion of the municipal council. Four voted against, eight for. A public meeting is then announced in the municipal newspaper. Local residents regret not having been consulted as a priority. “We could have missed it. » The meeting is “a little stormy”, says another local resident, Daniel Chaigneau.
“We are not against it, but not so close to our homes”
“We are not against it, but not so close to our homes,” they express. “He has plenty of ground, he can do it a little further,” adds a local resident. They are alarmed: for the view, from home, about the impacts of the panels, which they do not know, about their reverberation, the drop in the value of their housing. They don't feel listened to. “We were told: this project will be done. »
In November, they launched an association, called Préservons L'Hermenault, and a petition which has, so far, collected 289 signatures.
A “slightly stormy” meeting
Questioned on these points, the project leaders respond: on radiation, “this is part of the studies we are carrying out”, indicates Mickaël Calot, from TSE. A hedge planted alongside the houses aims to hide the panels from the view of local residents and cars arriving at the entrance to the town. They also indicate that the project was modified, between the first public meeting in June and the second in October: the panels were moved away from homes – they will be located between 60 and 135 meters from the borders of properties – and the technical zone was placed at the end of the site.
