While the Pennavel consortium continues its attempt to set up a floating wind farm off the coast of southern Brittany, the alert signals multiply both technical and local public opinion. A first mid-year assessment, published by the guards of the sea, reports a growing opposition and serious doubts about the feasibility of the project.
A communication campaign that turns in fiasco
Since the end of May, Pennavel has multiplied public meetings in Groix, Belle-Île, Saint-Pierre-Quiberon and Erdeven to try to convince residents and summer caregivers of the benefits of his project. Result: reduced assistance, forums disrupted by local collectives, and a distrust that peaks in Erdeven, where a rally of opponents – with the remarkable presence of Alexandre Jardin – forced the operator to cancel his event.
The impact on electricity bills, the environmental imprint and the fragility of the economic model ask many questions that Pennavel has failed to dissipate. One year before its designation as a project winner, the consortium has still not decided on elements as fundamental as the type of float or the anchor methods, a decisions now pushed to 2027 or 2028.
The national electrical network saturated by intermittentness
Beyond the mixed reception on the ground, it is the entire energy model based on intermittent “renewable” energies which seems to arrive at its limits. In June 2025, France had 50.7 GW of intermittent renewable energies (wind and solar) against 61.3 GW of nuclear capacity. This rise in power has caused episodes of overproduction, making the prices of wholesale negatives, without effect for consumers, but weakening the entire network.
Direct consequence: green electricity is now sometimes “clipped”, that is to say deliberately not injected on the network. A contract signed with IBERDROLA, operator of the Saint-Brieuc park, even provides compensation for non-produced energy. But this management in “stop-and-go” damages wind turbines, not designed to withstand such constraints, and could also harm the stability of nuclear reactors, according to experts from the sector.
In this context, the Brittany South AO5 project raises serious reservations. To Pennavel’s ignorance of the technical solutions he intends to use are added financial uncertainty: the German Baywa Re, project leader, is engaged in a partial sale of his activities by 2028 to reimburse his debts.
The question of maintenance also remains unanswered. As in Scotland will it be necessary to tow the wind turbines to Norway for repair? A logistical and economical nonsense at a time when the carbon footprint of the energy system is pretended to reduce.
Even RTE, the manager of the electricity network, by the voice of its president Xavier Piechaczyk, admitted in early July that new obligations were going to be imposed on intermittent energy producers. It is now the technical realities, and not the political slogans, which take over in the energy debate.
Photo credit: DR
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