France prepares offshore wind jackpot

France offshore wind tender faces delays as projects in the English Channel promise over 8,000 MW, surpassing 2020 targets, with wind farms, turbines, and renewable energy investment pushing grid-ready capacity.

French energy companies are promoting about 30 potential sites for offshore windfarms as the country prepares its first tender to build farms with a combined generating capacity of 3,000 megawatts MW.

The total combined capacity of the competing projects will top 8,000 MW, which considerably exceeds France's 2020 target of 6,000 MW from offshore wind energy. Most of the proposed windfarms will be in the English Channel, north of France. Despite an extensive coastline, France has no installed offshore wind capacity and has long relied on hydropower for renewables.

The French government has come under fire for not releasing the first tender back in September and is now being urged to hurry up or risk being left behind in the technological race. The government originally was scheduled to release the tender for 10 windfarms, featuring about 600 wind turbines, in May this year.

Details of the French government's tender, worth an estimated 10 billion euros US $13.3 billion, are expected before the end of the year but, thanks to the delays, the first farms will not begin producing electricity until 2015. France, which derives almost 80 of its energy from nuclear power, is hoping to generate 25,000 MW of energy from wind power projects in the coming decade, as part of its attempts to hit its 2020 renewable energy target of 23.

Consultants at PriceWaterhouseCooper said that France risks falling behind its European rivals in the offshore wind race. "France must not miss the opportunity to develop an offshore wind sector," said Alexis Chauffert-Yvart, author of a report on the French offshore wind sector.

France lags far behind other European countries, such as the UK, Germany and Denmark, in outlining a detailed offshore wind strategy. In January this year, the UK's Crown Estate, which manages the nations' seabed, announced the winners of the country's Round 3 offshore windfarm contracts, which are worth up to £100 billion US $157.1 billion and which will add more than 25 gigawatts GW of generation capacity by 2020. In May, the Crown Estate gave the green light to an additional 2 GW of offshore wind capacity.

France is also diversifying with photovoltaic and biomass to broaden its renewable mix.

GDF Suez S.A., through its La Compagnie du Vent subsidiary, is hoping that its 705-MW Deux-Côtes windfarm, which is located off the coast of Le Treport, will be the first French offshore windfarm in operation. It will boast 141 turbines with a rated capacity of 5 MW each and will cost 1.8 billion euros US $2.39 billion. The estimated completion date is 2014.

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