“Planning”, “siting” and the local acceptance of wind power: Some lessons from the French case

After some years of trifling development under a system of public tenders (1995–2000), French politicians progressively changed the national policy framework for feed-in tariffs (December 2000) and wind power development zones (July 2005). The new policy framework has triggered a beginning of takeoff in wind power capacity. The paper examines French wind power development in the light of two key dimensions and concepts related to wind power policy: “planning” and “siting” (Part 1). We particularly focus on the recent French legislative debate, which led to the adoption of the new policy framework (Part 2). The French case shows that the recourse to planning tools was not tailor-made for siting issues but resulted from a political fight over the decentralization of energy policy. The policy outcome, which we call “flexible decentralized planning”, is both interesting and ambiguous. It is interesting in that it develops interfaces between planning tools and siting institutions. It is ambiguous in that it is potentially very hierarchical: the final decision power is left in State-planners’ hands, making it unpredictable the extent to which room will genuinely be provided for siting processes to take place.