Wind turbines, the welcome clean energy source par excellence? Not for the defenders of a blue parrot threatened with extinction, who managed to suspend the construction of a Voltalia park in Brazil.
This French company began work in 2021, in the northeast of the country, which already hosts more than 90% of Brazilian wind energy production, with its strong and regular winds.
This park, whose construction is already well advanced, is equipped with 28 wind turbines, with a production capacity of 99.4 megawatts, in a semi-arid zone in Canudos, in the State of Bahia, which has granted Voltalia the environmental licenses required.
But a wind of criticism rose when association activists reported that these imposing white masts, 90 meters high, with blades 60 meters long, would be built on the sanctuary of Lear's macaws (Anodorhynchus leari).
This blue parrot was so named by the ornithologist Charles-Lucien Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon, in the middle of the 19th century, in homage to the poet, painter and British explorer Edward Lear, who immortalized it in his sketches.
Currently, there are only about two thousand specimens left in the wild.
Marlene Reis, of the NGO Projeto Jardins da Arara de Lear, fears that the wind turbines at Canudos will "significantly increase the risk of extinction" of this bird of about 75 cm, with bright blue plumage.
For this specialist, the impact may prove to be "irreversible", for an animal that lives and reproduces exclusively in the region". The wind turbines are therefore on the route of its flights, with the risk of collision.
These arguments were deemed admissible by a federal court, which suspended the works in April, canceling the permits issued to Voltalia by the State of Bahia.
The court ordered that further studies be carried out, and that the local populations be consulted.
Voltalia, a multinational present in twenty countries and four Brazilian states, appealed.
Nicolas Thouverez, head of the company in Brazil, assured AFP that "the possible environmental and social consequences" had been "exhaustively dealt with".
According to him, the studies already carried out by specialists to obtain the permits from the local authorities "have shown that the installation of wind farms in no way threatens the conservation of the species" of Lear's macaws.
Voltalia also offers solutions to limit the impact on parrots: one of them would consist of installing a mechanism that blocks the movement of the propellers as soon as it detects the arrival of one of these birds. The other would be to equip some of them with GPS to better observe the trajectories of their flights.
But blue parrots are not the only concern of local people.
In the areas around the Voltalia wind farm, nearly 7,500 small rural producers fear that their activities will be affected.
Adelson Matos, a 65-year-old farmer with a white beard who raises goats, sheep, cows and grows fruit trees in the nearby town of Alto Redondo, the project is contrary to "any kind of harmony with the habitat natural".
In particular, he fears that the wind turbines will affect the cycle of winds and rains in the region. Even before they were put into service, he was already complaining about the noise of the comings and goings of vehicles "day and night".
Brazil is the member of the G20, the world's top twenty economies, with the largest share of renewable energy sources, producing 89% of the country's electricity.
And if hydroelectric power plants still represent more than 60% of this production, the share of solar and wind power continues to increase.
Returning to power for a third term in January, leftist President Lula has promised to make the fight against climate change a priority, unlike his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022).
Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira recently announced his ambition to make northeast Brazil, which is already home to 725 of the country's 828 wind farms, "the largest reserve of clean and renewable energy in the world".
To achieve this, the government hopes to attract investments of 120 billion reais (about 22 billion euros).
05/23/2023 12:12:54 - Canudos (Brésil) (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
