The French government has also launched a long-awaited €10m offshore wind energy tender which aims to develop and build projects off the country's coastlines. The construction of 3GW of wind farms will require the installation of 600 wind turbines in five zones, which will help achieve the goal of supplying 23% of the France’s energy from renewable sources by 2020. The tender will have 2 rounds, and the first round projects are expected to be completed by 2015, and should provide 10 000 jobs by 2020.
One of the regions with a strong position in the offshore wind energy sector is Côte d’Opale, situated on the Northern coast of France, with access to the North Sea markets and the future Atlantic Ocean markets. Côte d’Opale has an ideal geographic location to serve the needs of the off shore wind energy industry, it faces the UK, which is the first European market in this domain, and it is close to French projects of Arc Manche. Côte d’Opale is within reach of many European cities such as Paris, Brussels, London and Amsterdam, and its dense communication network of motorways, TGV, Eurotunnel, ports, airports and canals provides easy access to 100 million consumers within a 300 km radius. This world class infrastructure make a large contribution to the economic dynamism of the region. 120 millions tonnes of merchandise is currently processed here.
The English Channel is a major international seaway with 260 000 commercial vessels sailing through it every year and the ports of the Côte d’Opale benefit from their unique position. The sea ports of Boulogne sur-Mer, Calais and Dunkirk complimented by the dry port Eurotunnel in Calais and the river port of Arques (Saint-Omer) are the undisputable leaders in their respective specialties.
Another advantage of the Côte d’Opale region is its linked industry network, including oil and gas industry, boilermaking (supplying products from turbine foundations to masts), piping (supplying jacket foundations), high resistance mechanical engineering, steel industry (supplying wide range and vast volumes of high quality metals, e.g. for sharpening wind turbine gear box pinions).
Côte d’Opale is a region with great future potential and dynamism and continues to initiate major projects such as the development of Canal Seine-Nord Europe project. The presence of numerous market leaders in the area is an unquestionable strength for the region’s economy. Its combination of industrial skills, production capabilities, infrastructure, tradition and know-how positions Côte d’Opale as a highly competitive region with great prospects for future investments in the wind energy sector and other supporting industries.
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Data sources: Côte d'Opale Développement, www.businessgreen.com, Global Wind Energy Council