The 17th-century château stands resplendent over the French countryside after its owners funded a €5 million renovation in an attempt to attract tourists from around the world.
But those owners, David O’Neil, 42, and his husband, William, 64, both American, will not be around to see if their plans work out. The couple are leaving next week after being dragged into one of many acrimonious debates caused by President Macron’s drive to end France’s aversion to green energy.
France has only 7,950 wind turbines, according to figures published this month, generating 6 per cent of the nation’s electricity, compared with 20 per cent in Britain and 17 per cent in Germany. Mr Macron has set a target for wind turbines to generate 34 gigawatts of power in 2028, more than doubling the present 15.3 gigawatts. This would enable France to cut the proportion of its electricity that comes from nuclear reactors from 75 per cent today to 50 per cent in 2035 while reducing fossil fuel energy production by 40 per cent over a decade.
His ecological ambitions have encountered fierce resistance. Two thirds of all planning applications for wind farms are contested, meaning that authorisation, when it is granted, takes an average of eight years.
Xavier Bertrand, the head of the northern France regional council, which has more wind farms than anywhere else in the country, said this week that he wanted a moratorium amid claims that they were ugly and bad for the health of people living near them. “There are too many of them already,” he said. “Developers claim they cause no problems, but which of them has a house at the foot of a wind turbine? None.”
As it is across France, so it is in Bourg l’Iré. The O’Neils were horrified when they learnt of a proposal to build a wind farm there in 2016, shortly after they bought Château de Falloux.
They had plans to attract couples from around the world for weddings in the château, which they also hoped would become a setting for concerts, firework displays and other such events. Their dreams would be ruined if the backdrop was turbines, they said.
The village council agreed, and promised to ditch the wind farm scheme if they renovated the château. “They were thrilled with what we wanted to do,” Mr O’Neil said. But then Bourg l’Iré was incorporated into a bigger district called Segré-en-Anjou Bleu, whose council says it is not bound by the promise made by the village, and will consider the application for the wind farm. “They are using a loophole to get out of the deal and that is fundamentally wrong. We feel betrayed,” Mr O’Neil said.
The wind farm is opposed by most of the 900 or so residents of Bourg l’Iré, including Charles Appleton, 62, and his wife Christine 60, from Suffolk, who have spent almost €2 million renovating their chambre d’hôtes in the village to accommodate people attending events at the château. “The turbines would dominate the skyline,” Mr Appleton said.
The wind farm is backed by farming unions, whose members would earn a healthy revenue from turbines on their land. District officials are tempted, too, given that the farm could generate tax receipts of several hundred thousand euros a year.
“Ninety per cent of people here are really nice to us but 10 per cent treat us badly in person and on the internet,” Mr O’Neil said. “It is too stressful. We didn’t come to France to get embroiled in a political debate.”
Next week, they will take a cruise back to the United States, returning to France from time to time to finalise the sale of the château.
1 Comment
Sylvain · October 25, 2019 at 10:13 am
First of all, the energy transition is not a decision my president Macron alone, it is a global politics decided by the government, voted by the nationnal assembly after a public consultation. Status quo is not an option as all our nuclear power plants are reaching the end of their oparating life.
Then the wind project located in Loiré and Le Bourg d’Iré as been started according to regional wind developpement schemes, with the inimate approbation of both town concils. The O’Neils have bought the castel three years after the start of the wind project.
Spending a lot of times there, it is completely false to say that most of people reject the projet.
Energy transition is a necessity and France is not ready to neglect its own infrastructure to be a reserve for american and chinese tourists.