Offshore Wind Worldwide 2022 edition - Flipbook - Page 63
Offshore Wind Worldwide 2022
I. State and future of Offshore Wind
Projects
A.Key aspects of Offshore
Wind Projects
The development of offshore wind farms in
France during the 10 last years has been slow
and not very successful – no OWF is
currently operated. 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 few years 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.
Simultaneously, the Government has
launched a series of significative tender
procedures in order to award 1 GW per year
as of 2023, and has announced in February
2022 its will to have around 50 offshore
wind farms in operation with a total capacity
of around 40 GW in 2050 . 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.
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B.Current state of offshore
wind development and projects
Even though France has the second field for
development of OWFs in Europe after the
United Kingdom,1 and even though the
potential of installed wind power and
floating wind power is respectively estimated
at 16 GW and 33 GW,2 no OWF is currently
operated in France.
To this day, only one offshore wind turbine
produces electricity. This turbine is a floating
wind turbine inaugurated in October 2017 in
Saint-Nazaire (Atlantic coast). This is a 2
MW prototype that is operated in an
experimental site in Le Croisic and which
was installed in September 2018.
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 five rounds – to
attribute OWF projects to private operators.
The first call for tenders (first round) was
launched in July 2011, and aimed to attribute
to the winning bidder about 3 GW in
different locations on the French Atlantic
Coast with the right to get authorisation to
operate the farms and to conclude a PPA for
20 years. At the end of the tender procedure
1
President’s speech of 10 February 2022. According to www.conaissancedesenergies.org and www.ecologique-solidaire.gouv.fr.
2
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.