One thousand metres above sea level on the Ally plateau in the Haute-Loire, France’s latest and largest wind farm will soon be producing 28MW for the national grid. Much bigger wind farms are planned in the north of France that will provide up to 150MW, still a modest contribution of course when compared to the 1,200MW output of the average nuclear power station. 

The new energy centre of the next decade is likely to be the Auvergne, harnessing sun, wind and water. Three wind farms are planned, and to take advantage of its high annual sunshine, solar power, increasingly competitive because of the soaring price of crude and refined oil. The Auvergne’s hydroelectric facilities already meet 15% of France’s energy requirements, and locally as much as 25%, rainfall permitting. But wind and solar power are the future: because even France cannot accommodate any more major dams.