Hogan Lovell OffshoreBook 2023 230809 OnlinePDF - Flipbook - Page 81
Offshore Wind Worldwide 2023
1. STATE AND FUTURE OF OFFSHORE WIND PROJECTS
1.1 Key aspects of
Offshore Wind Projects
The end of the year 2022 has been a key
moment in the development of the offshore
wind projects in France, as the first commercial-scale offshore wind project, located
in Saint Nazaire, is fully operational since
November 2022. This is a significant milestone in a context in which during the past
10 years, the development of offshore wind
farms in France has been slow and not very
successful – as no OWF has been operated
until November 2022. This is owing in particular to the insufficiency of the preliminary
studies and the complexity of the permitting process, paired with numerous and long
legal challenges of the authorisations, once
allocated.
Since a few years ago, however, several laws
have clarified and simplified the permitting
process and the handling of the potential
litigations and have globally reduced the
weight of studies and processes previously
shouldered by the OWF operators, leading
finally to the operation of the Saint-Nazaire
offshore wind farm. Simultaneously, the
Government has launched a series of significant tender procedures in order to award 1
GW per year as of 2023, and has announced
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in February 2022 its goal to have around
50 offshore wind farms in operation with a
total capacity of around 40 GW in 2050.1 The
strong and steady green energy policy, materialized by structured tenders, constitutes
a reliable basis for a successful development
of the OWF in the coming years.
1.2 Current state of offshore wind
development and projects
Even though France occupies the second
place when it comes to the development of
OWFs in Europe after the United Kingdom, 2
and even though the potential of installed
wind power and floating wind power is
respectively estimated at 16 GW and 33
GW,3 only two OWF are currently operated in
France, namely (i) one at a commercial scale
in Saint-Nazaire, and (ii) one at an experimental scale, called FLOATGEN, which is a
2 MW prototype of a floating wind turbine,
installed in September 2018 in an experimental site in Le Croisic (Atlantic coast).
However, a clear aim of the French government is to foster the development of a local
industrial capacity and national champions
in relation to OWFs. Therefore, the French
government has decided around 10 years
ago to catch up with its neighbouring countries by launching several calls for tenders - in
eight rounds - to attribute OWF projects to
private operators.
1
President’s speech of 10 February 2022.
2
According to www.conaissancedesenergies.org and www.ecologique-solidaire.gouv.fr.
3 According to the French multi annual energy plan ("MAEP“ - "Programmation pluriannuelle de l’énergie“ in French) adopted on 21 April 2020 and to
the English version of the project of the MAEP edited in 2019: "Regarding offshore wind: the technical potential for installed wind power is 9 0GW according to ADEME. Due to limitations related to usage competition, the potential is currently estimated at 16 GW. The technical potential for the wind turbine
would be 155 GW according to ADEME, of which 33 GW would be accessible taking into account the limits related to the competition of use“. No English
version of the final MAEP is available to date.
