Justice dismisses opponents of a wind project in Dordogne

Back to square one for opponents of the wind farm project in the municipalities of La Rochebeaucourt-et-Argentine and Champagne-et-Fontaine, in the north of the Dordogne. On November 18, 2024, the Council of State overturned two articles of the decision rendered by the administrative court of appeal of Bordeaux in June 2023 which invalidated the building permit issued in 2019 by the Dordogne prefecture to the company Q Energy (formerly RES Hanwha).

At the time, the administrative jurisdiction noted a risk for biodiversity due to the absence of an exemption from the Environmental Code in the permit issued by the State. “The proposed avoidance and reduction measures cannot be considered as reducing the risk of harm to the squall, the common crane, the crested lapwing and the golden plover,” then wrote, in its conclusions, the court administrative appeal.

The project leader contested the decision

A decision immediately contested by Q Energy before the Council of State which has just found it partly right. The highest administrative court considered that the court had committed two errors of law: the first by considering the risks of impact for the crested lapwing and the golden plover, “two birds which do not appear in the list of protected birds” and the second by “not taking into account the strengthening of the measure for restricting wind turbine blades, which consisted of extending the machine shutdown period from one hour before sunset to one hour after, a measure that 'she had herself prescribed”.

Requested by “Sud Ouest”, the Périgord Citizenship Environment association (CEP), which brings together opponents of the Verteillacois wind projects, did not react to the news. But we imagine that the blow is severe for those who thought they had won the standoff between them and the project leader after the decision of the Bordeaux administrative court of appeal.