Lhe inauguration by Emmanuel Macron, on September 22, of the first French offshore wind farm (480 MW), located 12 km off Le Croisic and La Baule, in Loire-Atlantique, marks a turning point. For the first time in its history, France will produce large quantities of electricity in a marine environment – it should be noted, however, that the tidal power plant at La Rance, in Ille-et-Vilaine, was commissioned in 1966. Following calls for tender launched since 2011, other parks are under construction, for a total of 3.6 GW awarded. An ambitious target of 50 offshore parks by 2050 was announced by the President of the Republic in Belfort on February 10. In the context of the systemic crisis of the “3Es” (environment, energy and economy), aggravated today by the Russian-Ukrainian war, offshore wind power seems a definite asset for meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement as of now and the latest recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The sea and energy are historically two areas where sovereign power is expressed. Offshore wind power thus enables the State to pursue and reinvent its techno-politics under the prism of ecological transition.
Deported to the sea, offshore wind power thus presents itself as a solution to the highly publicized problems of onshore wind power, particularly landscape and heritage issues. In the absence of being able (and wanting) to collectively build a terrestrial energy landscape based on renewable energies, we prefer to move to sea, imagined as a world of the invisible and the unknown, the nuisances generated by our consumerist way of life. and energy-consuming, which our society is no longer able to accept on earth. Floating offshore wind power, which now opens up the possibility of putting the turbines even further from the coast, is part of this pursuit of making energy production invisible.
The myth of abundance
But aim for technological gigantism – the most modern machines are 290 meters – like the allegories of globalization that are mega ocean liners and super container ships, also allows the myth of energy abundance to be perpetuated. Floating wind opens the way to almost unlimited electricity production: globally, 80% of offshore wind resources are found in seas more than 60 meters deep, which encourages the use of floating wind turbines . A scale necessary for the production in large quantities of green hydrogen, also presented as the new Eldorado to be conquered.
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