The Blade Stops Here: France Holds Wind Industry Accountable at Last
9 hours ago Charles Rotter 23
The recent shutdown of the Bernagues wind farm in Hérault, France, marks a long-overdue reckoning with the lethal impacts of wind energy on wildlife—particularly raptors like the golden eagle. On April 9, 2025, a French court ordered the entire site to cease operations for one year following the confirmed death of a golden eagle, a protected species, that collided with one of the farm’s turbine blades in January 2023. The decision also slapped Energie Renouvelable du Languedoc (ERL), the farm’s operator, with a €200,000 fine, half of which was suspended, and imposed an additional €40,000 fine on the company’s director.
https://www.ouest-france.fr/environnement/apres-la-mort-dun-aigle-royal-la-justice-ordonne-larret-dun-parc-eolien-dans-lherault-ba605342-153e-11f0-9759-9654df6b878bThis isn’t just a one-off judicial reaction. It represents a seismic shift in how the French legal system—and perhaps the broader public—are beginning to confront the uncomfortable truth about wind energy’s collateral damage. Despite the Green orthodoxy that surrounds renewables, wind turbines kill birds. And not just any birds. In this case, the victim was the breeding male of a golden eagle pair that had nested just three kilometers from the turbine site, a distance well beyond typical disturbance buffers used in wildlife protection.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/04/20/the-blade-stops-here-france-holds-wind-industry-accountable-at-last/
