Hogan Lovell OffshoreBook 2023 230809 OnlinePDF - Flipbook - Page 87
Offshore Wind Worldwide 2023
87
In overview, the key elements of the development of an OWF project are as follows:
domain and environmental authorisation;
(a) Public debate and preliminary studies
led by the State;
(d) Conclude the grid connection contract;
and
(b) Win a tender procedure;
(e) Enter commercial and financing
agreements.
(c) Obtain authorisation to use the public
The key Government and regulatory stakeholders are as follows:
Area
Responsibility
Seabed leasing
The relevant Prefect
Energy Policy
Ministry of ecological transition
CfD co-contractor
Electricité de France (EDF)
Electricity licensing
Minister in charge of energy
Market regulation
Commission de régulation de l’énergie (CRE)
Environmental policy
Ministry of ecological transition
Planning consents
No planning consent needed
Grid (Transmission)
Réseau de transport d’électricité (RTE)
Aviation
Ministry of ecological transition
Defence
Ministry of Defence
Navigation
Ministry of sea
2.2 Scheme in relation to exclusivity to
construct, own and operate a project,
as well as to receive feed in revenues
French OWF projects can, in theory, be
realised under two different schemes. In
theory, any operator is entitled to apply for
the required authorisations (see section 3
below) and, once obtained, to operate any
OWF. Whereas in the past all regularly authorised OWF projects allowed, in theory, the
operators to conclude a PPA with EDF under
which (i) EDF was obliged to buy the energy
produced; and (ii) according to a subsidised,
fixed feed-in tariff scheme (as onshore wind
farms), only a very limited number of off-
shore wind projects - some floating offshore
wind installations which won a specific
French or European call for tenders - are still
eligible to the fixed feed-in tariff scheme.
In practice, French OWF projects are
nowadays awarded and developed under
a specific public tendering scheme, which
allows it inter alia to deviate from the fixed
feed-in tariff regime and to match the specific cost structure of a given OWF project,
but also to ease considerably the permitting
process and timeline. If the production capacities in the OWF sector are insufficient to
achieve the goals fixed in the MAEP - which
