| Paris city authorities are planning
to build small wind turbines into one of the world's most famous
skylines to take advantage of the strong winds which sometimes
sweep high points such as Montmartre.
"We are not talking of big models like those we see in the
countryside. We are in Paris and we musn't disfigure the landscape"
- Denis Baupin, a deputy mayor in charge of sustainable development,
told Le Parisien newspaper.
The turbines would be installed on flat rooftops in four
neighborhoods which experience strong winds, he said in the
interview. One of them is Montmartre in northern Paris - home
to the celebrated Sacre-Coeur Basilica and the Moulin Rouge
cabaret, whose name translates as 'Red Windmill'.
Jean-Louis Butre, head of the French Federation for Sustainable
Environment, which lobbies against large-scale wind power,
said turbines in Paris would disfigure the landscape. "If
the plan is to install 15-meter high wind turbines on the
roofs, I think we are destroying Paris' historical heritage
and I fear these are utopist solutions" - Butre said.
Integrated systems - such as less visible internal wind turbines
in buildings - would, however, be acceptable, he said.
Other capital cities such as London have already installed
big wind turbines on their city fringes and a huge turbine
is expected to be built for the 2012 Olympic games, the newspaper
said.
The turbines in Paris will produce electricity, which will
be sold to the state-owned utility EDF or directly used in
the buildings where they will be installed, Baupin said.
Baupin added that the city's authorities were also studying
setting up water turbines under the capital's bridges of the
Seine river. "The first tests will start in 2011 or 2012"
- he said.
France aims for terrestrial wind energy to reach 20,000 megawatts
by 2020 - or around 20 percent of current capacity - up from
3,000 MW at present.
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