In the Cévennes, 122 hectares of solar panels will be installed in a protected area

Plateau du Roujanel (Lozère), report

Scots pines lined up like soldiers grow on the rocky ground. Between the tracks DFCI (fire protection) and broom, fluorescent orange plastic signs have grown like mushrooms. Harvesters of porcini mushrooms and chanterelles cross these markers which demarcate the five future zones where solar panels will be installed. The State authorized, in a decree dated July 30, the construction of a ground-mounted solar power plant with a total surface area of ​​122 hectares (241,758 modules in total) in the municipalities of Prévéchés (260 inhabitants) and Pied -de-Borne (186 inhabitants).

Thus, the Roujanel plateau will be partly covered by the largest solar power plant in Occitanie (129 MWp, or the electricity consumption of 80,000 people). The gorges of Chassezac, the river of this valley, have also been transformed, this time for the construction of five hydroelectric dams (with a power of 197 megawatts-peak (MWp), or the consumption of 162,000 people). An industrial zone is about to be established in this rural and sparsely populated territory, registered in the « zone tampon » of « Unesco property » of the Causses and the Cévennes, under « cultural landscape of Mediterranean agropastoralism ».

35 hectares of forest covered

Upon learning of the existence of the project, the scientific council of the Unesco Property took it up in 2019. Its advisory opinion advised local elected officials to limit ground-mounted solar installations. « to already artificialized areas without heritage value ». As for the National Nature Protection Council (CNPN), he pointed out, in his opinion of November 2023, a project in « inconsistency with State policy in terms of preserving carbon sinks, restoring environments and maintaining the good conservation status of protected species ».

According to the impact study, the project will cover moors, wet meadows, and will require the destruction of 35 hectares of forests. 2 meter high fences will fence off the infrastructure built by EDF Renewables and society AJM Energy. The Roujanel solar power plant will require the construction of 27 conversion stations, a 280 m delivery station²as well as 33 km of slopes.

Despite these effects on the landscape, the project did not arouse fervent opposition among residents, apart from a few negative opinions during the public inquiry. Guillaume (first name changed at his request), resident of Pied-de-Borne, is outraged: « We can stop seeing nature as an economic potential, but as a sensitive, vital subject. There is enough space on the roofs of supermarkets. »

Enthusiastic local elected officials

Unlike other breeders, the mayor of Prévéchés, Olivier Maurin, at the head of a farm of 1,200 sheep, does not see the project as a threat to pastoralism. « From the start, I set conditions that the sheep could graze under the panels and that the developers finance the construction of a farm to install new breeders. I accepted this project because it is a gain for agriculture »he assures.

As part of the fight against fires, local elected officials also saw it as a way to finance new roads. DFCI and water tanks at the expense of energy companies in a context of falling state funding. « If our communities believe that, tomorrow, they will be able to survive financially with the support of the State, they are wrong »supports Olivier Maurin. Not to mention the tax benefits announced in the public inquiry at 620,000 euros per year, as well as the rent, of 140,000 euros annually, which will go directly into the coffers of the two municipalities.

On the Unesco side, the project has sparked numerous debates, reports Ségolène Dubois, director of the interdepartmental agreement of Causses and Cévennes, a public establishment responsible for managing the Unesco Property. « The project is not located in the heart of the Unesco Property which is 3,000 km2, but in a “buffer zone”. And it is defended by local elected officials who also contribute to keeping alive the traditions of agropastoralism which allowed the territory to be listed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 2011. »

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With the mission of accelerating the deployment of renewable energies, the prefect of Lozère, Philippe Castanet, considers such a project, « concentrated in one place »preferable to dispersal. « This will certainly make a less beautiful corner, but there will not be another project like this elsewhere »he assures. As for the issues of preserving biodiversity, he responds: « The priority is to get away from carbon and our dependence on fossil fuels. »