On the outskirts of Ercé-en-Lamée, a small town in the south of Ille-et-Vilaine, the wind turbines have moved. A few meters each, almost nothing on the scale of a plot of land. The plans for the project, two 180 meter high masts which will soon dominate this town and its church classified for the protection of bats, were modified some time before their submission to the authorities, for surprising reasons. It was not an engineer who decided this, at least initially: this slight change was made after the visit of a geobiologist, the representative of a discipline made up of esoteric beliefs.
“According to him, these new locations would avoid faults in the subsoil facilitating the circulation of stray and electromagnetic currents from wind turbines to farms and homes”, indicates David Clausse, general manager of Energ’iV, one of the two companies which carry the project, currently under review. The manager is aware of the reality surrounding this practice: these “faults” and “telluric currents” that the profession claims to find, which would harm human health and that of farmed animals, have never been scientifically proven. The company still decided to follow these recommendations.
These interventions are far from isolated. For several years, geobiology has proliferated in wind power projects in western France. “This is part of our measures if local demand is strong,” confirms an international giant in the sector. “It is seen as an additional precautionary principle in the face of local residents’ fears,” adds Jérémy Simon, deputy general delegate of the Renewable Energies Union. While recognizing that “these diagnoses cannot be put at the same level as scientific studies” .
Energy networks never before demonstrated
Seeing it as a way to calm fears around wind turbines, objects of many fantasies, the public authorities have been able, in places, to encourage the practice. In Loire-Atlantique, the prefecture systematically requests that these pseudo-experts be consulted. And this, upstream and downstream of projects in order to “respond to local issues and sensitivities”, we can read in a protocol which she wrote. The idea: to map, in particular, the “Hartmann” and “Curry” (sic) networks which would pass under the farms, “energy currents” whose existence has never been demonstrated.
No scientific discipline has ever seriously addressed these concepts. But for geobiologists, who share with dowsers and dowsers stories calling on higher deities, there is no doubt that these elements would be capable of influencing our behavior and our health. “Science has its limits. It only explains 5% of the universe. We carry out environmental hygiene with tools that amplify biosensitivity,” defends Bernard Olifirenko, president of the National Confederation of Geobiology.
The Loire-Atlantique prefecture has never denied the existence of this protocol, but refutes its obligatory nature. In fact, wind operators are effectively free to refuse to carry out these studies or not to follow their recommendations, since geobiological diagnostics do not appear in the regulatory documents to be provided. Except that in practice, a large part of the work linked to wind power in the department is done with their assistance.
Mineral minipyramids and stone-topped stakes
It must be said that, since the imbroglio of the Quatre-Seigneurs in Nozay, works of this kind have continued to strain in the territory. Built in 2012 and commissioned in 2013, this park remains at the center of a legal standoff between the developer and a couple of breeders. The latter believe that the eight wind turbines, located 700 meters from their farm – since sold – are the cause of the ills suffered by their cows. More than 400 died in a decade, they say, because of the slender giants.
For years, experts paraded on site, from the most serious to the most eccentric, armed with mini mineral pyramids and other stone-topped stakes. “Veterinarians, independent organizations… Nobody found a solution. So, when the breeders saw that things were going well with us, they started to contact us again,” underlines Luc Leroy, geobiologist present at the time. L’National Health Security Agency (Anses) finally concluded, at the end of 2021, “that attributability to wind turbines was mostly excluded”. But the idea had already gained ground among local residents. And the Rennes Court of Appeal put a piece back in the machine in April 2023, authorizing the expertise of the park’s underground electrical cables in search of potential malfunctions.
The case was a catalyst in the agricultural sphere. Since then, it has been difficult to launch a project in the region without these apostles of “cosmic energies” being invoked, whether during visits to stables or during public inquiries. To the point of surprising some investigating commissioners when the manufacturers do not bring them. “Certainly, the results of the geobiological studies are not scientifically proven, but they would have been likely to improve the acceptability of the project […] I can only recommend carrying out these studies.” wrote one of themin May 2024, about four future wind turbines in the town of La Rouaudière, in Mayenne.
“Geobiology liquefies, reassures”
A visit from a geobiologist would not have really bothered the company responsible for this work, Quénéa. She’s already calling them “more than once in two,” slips an employee. What does it matter if these practices keep the pseudo-expert shops running, at its expense. “It’s not a waste of money, because it’s really important for the locals. Geobiology makes it more fluid and reassures,” he continues. “In 70% of cases, local residents contest with the administrative court, which can lead to years of delay on the project and a significant financial loss. Ultimately, calling on the geobiologist may seem like the lesser evil,” adds an investigating commissioner. experienced.
A quick tour of the administrative documents linked to wind projects is enough to realize the extent of the phenomenon. The geobiologists advise, map, trace the routes of the electrical cables, scribble the plans of the structures. Here they are, in 2020, in Montjean, in Mayenne, where theoperator undertakes to enforce them at the slightest doubt. They participated in the Grand-Auverné project, in Loire-Atlantique, the same year. And last spring, still in this department, a workshop was held in Plessé to present the “discipline”, the interaction of these energy sources with livestock farming and the alleged impact on homes.
Faced with this tidal wave, the chambers of agriculture, public establishments which train farmers and defend their interests, have decided to encourage the practice instead of restricting it. “I hear it’s not rational, but these people have a real sensitivity to current and are able to detect it. Why? I don’t know. All I can tell you is that “We are faced with cases where we have no solution and they are the only ones to offer an analysis”, explains Sébastien Windsor, head of the national network.
Support from chambers of agriculture
These structures now directly train their staff in geobiology, in addition to connecting breeders who wish to do so with these practitioners. Those who collaborate with the chambers of agriculture, Sébastien Windsor certifies, have nothing to do with the fantasists who can use “incantations” and eccentric techniques such as “informed” water thanks to “violin music” at 300 euros per liter. He is convinced of this: geobiologists, the “real” ones, “know” where the “parasitic currents” are located.
To understand how pseudoscience was able to penetrate a world so nourished with rationality, we must reread the reports submitted to the State in recent years. The best known? That of Philippe Bolo, MP (MoDem) for Maine-et-Loire, in 2021. He distinguishes between “good” and “bad” geobiologists, and recommends that the profession be structured. Too bad if the entire practice is refuted. Too bad, too, if it “can be used by ill-intentioned people who seem to act more to take advantage of the distressed situations of breeders”, he writes.
The document is often cited to justify the use of geobiology. Just like this other report published in December 2023 by the General Council for Food, Agriculture and Rural Areasa public body which assists ministers in their choices. We can read there that “the question of geobiology” is “to be explored”. With the only argument defending this opinion being “the number and nature of the references” identified in the field. In other words: enthusiasm and belief would be enough to justify the interest of scientists.
“Feeding charlatanism”
If geobiology has recently returned to the spotlight thanks to a video from the influencer who denounces pseudoscience, G Milgramit is not new in the French landscape. It had already benefited from an important relay in the 1990s, notably through the works of the physicist Roger Le Lann, who recommended, for example, “sleeping with your head to the north” or even “moving the clock radio away from the bed “.
A former wind developer in Brittany, who “saw in fifteen years the rise of fake news in the field”, recalls equally crazy stories at the end of the 2000s. Like that of pseudo-experts extolling the merit of silica wafers to be buried in the foundations of wind turbines to cure the ailments caused by their telluric waves. “Some developers gave in and bought some to reassure residents,” he assures. The price of this social peace?
The problem, although it mainly concerns wind power, is however not limited to it. Photovoltaic parks, high voltage lines and telecommunications antennas are also affected. In Auzainvilliers, in the Vosges, at the request of local residents and the mayor himself, the leader of a solar panel project has thus made “a commitment to call on a geobiologist to ensure the harmony of energy flows from the faults with the park”, according to the public inquiry report published at the end of 2023. An intervention billed at 7,500 euros, according to the estimate attached to the same document. “Calling on geobiologists is certainly a way of advancing the cause of the environment and energy transition, but to the detriment of reason, warns an executive from a green energy company. You are buying peace social to little, but you feed charlatanism at the same time.”
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