A court in the French city of Montpellier has ordered the shutdown of a wind farm for one year following the death of a rare bird.
The energy company responsible, Energie Renouvelable du Languedoc (ERL), also received a fine of €200,000, with €100,000 suspended. Its director, François Daumard, was fined €40,000, with €20,000 suspended.
In its ruling on April 9, the court ordered the “provisional execution” of the measure “to avoid the repetition of the offence”, said the president of the criminal chamber.
In addition, the energy company has an obligation to publish, at its own expense and within one month (with a penalty of €100 per day of delay), precise information about its conviction in the newspapers Le Monde, Reporterre, and Midi Libre.
At the heart of the case was the death of a golden eagle, which was struck by a wind turbine blade. The animal was tracked with a GPS, registering its death and the cause.
In France, the golden eagle population is estimated to be under 460 breeding pairs and is a protected species.
Wind turbines are responsible for high bird and bat mortalities. In 2017, a common bent-wing ba’, a vulnerable species, was found dead in the same area and, in 2020, a Black vulture was killed, also a protected species.
For years, environmental organisations have taken legal action to try to tackle the ecological impacts of this wind farm.
Initial permits were cancelled due to violations of urban planning codes and inadequate environmental impact studies. Despite court orders urging the wind farm to be dismantled, it continued to operate. Ongoing legal battles expected to conclude later in this month.
Hérault: la justice ordonne l'arrêt d'un parc éolien pour un an après la mort d'un aigle royal. Le tribunal de Montpellier a ordonné, mercredi 9 avril, l'arrêt pour une durée d'un an du parc éolien de Bernagues (Hérault), jugeant ses exploitants pénalement responsables de la mort pic.twitter.com/EUuszcG4QL
— Au coeur des animaux (@AuCoeurAnimaux) April 10, 2025
In a press statement, the environmental organisation Collectif 34, one of the civil parties in this case, said the high bird mortality caused by wind turbines was “systemic, endemic, and persistent throughout France”.
It said that was particularly the case in Occitanie and the Parc Naturel Régional du Haut-Languedoc, a region of medium-sized mountains with a rich diversity of raptors, bats and migratory passerines such as sparrows and crows, all of which are protected species highly sensitive to wind turbines.
The eagle killed was the breeding male of a pair that had established a nest in 2008, approximately 3 kilometres from where ERL constructed its wind turbines in 2016, according to France Nature Environnement, one of the six associations involved as civil parties in this case.
These six associations received €35,000 damages from the ERL and its director, alongside €3,000 compensation for ecological damage and €1,000 legal fees for each organisation.
The sentencing came just a few days after the same court ordered 31 other wind turbines shut down for four months and slapped them with heavy fines after finding them responsible for the deaths of 160 protected birds.
Each of the 10 companies involved in that case had to pay €500,000, half of which was suspended.
Bruno Bensasson, the former CEO of EDF Renewables, the parent company of all involved, received a suspended six-month prison term and a fine of €100,000, one third of which was suspended.
French environmentalists said the convictions would “likely curb the frenzy of wind farm developers to install their turbines anywhere they please and force their way through”.
An ancient German forest featured in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm is being partially cut down in favour of 241-metre tall wind turbines. https://t.co/tByda88tQi
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 6, 2023
Update: A spokesperson for Valeco, the ultimate parent of EDF Renewables, told Brussels Signal: “We will be lodging an appeal. At this stage, the legal process is ongoing and we do not wish to comment further.”
