Posted by Hugues Naudet
On the 6th of April, the French Government announced the results of the first tender concerning the construction of offshore wind farms off the French Atlantic coast launched as part of the “investment program for the future”.
In July 2011, the French Government launched a public tender for the installation of 3000MW (3 GW) offshore wind energy turbines. It represents the first part of the 6000 MW (6GW) to be installed by 2020 and will produce about 9 million MGW / hour i.e. 1.7% of the French electrical production.
The territories concerned are as follows:
Le Tréport (Seine-Maritime, Somme) on 110 km2, for a maximum power of 750 MW.- Fécamp (Seine-Maritime) on 88 km2, for a maximum power of 500 MW.
- Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados) on 77 km2, for a maximum power of 500 MW.
- Baie de Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d'Armor) on 180 km2, for a maximum power of 500 MW.
- Estuaire de la Loire à Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) on 78 km2, for a maximum power of 750 MW.
EDF (Electricity of France), associated with Alstom and Dong (Danish group), won the largest area: Saint-Nazaire, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp.
Areva and Iberdrola (Spanish group) won the Saint-Brieuc site.
Regarding Le Tréport, on which GDF was positioned, the site has been declared fruitless.
Alstom will build 4 factories at Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg, Areva will set-up 2 industrial plants at Le Havre.
The companies now have 18 month to carry out detailed feasibility studies after which they can decide to retract.
According to the French Minister of the Industry M. Eric Besson, the construction of the wind power plants represents an investment of € 7 billion, and 10 000 potential jobs.
Sources:
CNER http://www.cner-france.com/
http://www.cleantechrepublic.com/category/eolien/
http://energiesdelamer.blogspot.fr/2011/07/appel-doffres-eolien-offshore-francais.html