Boralex has commissioned the 65MW Moulins du Lohan wind farm, located in the commune of Forges de Lanouée, in the Morbihan department of Brittany, France.
With this commissioning, Boralex has reached 1.2GW of installed capacity in France and crossed the milestone of 3GW worldwide.
Moulins du Lohan features 17 Vestas V126 turbines with a unit capacity of 3.8MW.
“The Moulins du Lohan wind farm project reflects the challenges of deploying renewable energy in France,” said Nicolas Wolff, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Europe, at Boralex.
He added: “At each stage of development, we were able to demonstrate that the project was sound, yet it still took more than 10 years to see it through to fruition.
“There is a need to simplify the procedures governing the development of renewable energy if the objectives of France’s multi-year energy programme, the PPE, are to be met.
“Renewables are key to decarbonizing our society. That principle is central to the new law aimed at accelerating the deployment of renewable energies, for which we have high expectations.”
The wind farm was developed with local environmental and landscape sensitivities in mind.
Lanouée Forest, a forestry site that hosts the wind farm, covers almost 4000 hectares.
The wind farm occupies 0.3% of that area, 11.4 hectares, which will be replanted with deciduous species covering an area of 12.25 hectares.
Project construction was adapted and carried out in line with an environmental strategy aimed at maintaining the forest’s biological functions, respecting its multiple uses, and implementing measures that add value to the forest ecosystem.
The same strategy will continue to apply throughout the wind farm’s operating phase.