Clean Energy Faces the Same Problem as Fossil Fuels: Community Protests

In late June, about 30 local commercial fishing boats surrounded a towering vessel off the coast of Brittany, seeking to block the installation of part of a $2.9 billion wind farm run by Spanish utility Iberdrola SA .

The fishermen succeeded in driving the ship away, prompting a judicial investigation and legal threats from the local Iberdrola unit, Ailes Marines, against the protesters. The fishermen say they will continue to fight against the project, saying it threatens to destroy their businesses by disrupting the marine life they harvest and their access to it.

More broadly, their protests underscore a mounting problem for energy companies and governments around the world scaling up production of renewable energy: Clean-energy projects require vast bodies of land and water, potentially depriving farmers and fishermen of their livelihood. And the result is that in places as disparate as Massachusetts, South Korea and Colombia, clean-energy installations have faced the same sort of community grievances once directed at fossil-fuel producers.

The protesters face an array of powerful forces. Governments across the globe have thrown their support behind renewable energy as part of their commitment to reduce carbon emissions. And shareholders and courts are putting increasing pressure on companies to invest in clean energy. In late May, for instance, a Dutch court ruled that Royal Dutch Shell PLC is partially responsible for climate change, and ordered the company to reduce its carbon emissions 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels. Hours later in the U.S., a hedge fund with a small investment in Exxon Mobil Corp. that wants the oil giant to focus more on renewable energy won seats on the company’s board.

Protesters are also up against environmentalists, who often support projects that have caused some controversy, including the wind farm off the Brittany coast. The region witnessed the rupture of the Amoco Cadiz tanker in 1978, one of the largest oil spills in history. “Back then, I saw the heavy fuel spill over the beach from my home. For me, this was a catalyst” as an environmental activist, says Denez L’Hostis, honorary president of France Nature Environnement, a federation of environmental groups. He backs the Breton wind farm. “Fishermen say the sea belongs to them, but it’s a collective asset,” he says.