Engie-Led Consortium Pushes Ahead with French Offshore Wind Projects

A consortium led by French energy company Engie will submit permit applications for the development and operation of two offshore wind farms in French waters totalling close to 1GW in capacity at the beginning of 2017, Raphaël Tilot, Engie’s offshore wind power project director told Le Figaro.

In May 2014, a consortium comprising Engie, EDP Renewables, Neoen Marine and Areva, won a public tender to build and operate the 496MW Treport offshore wind farm in the Seine-Maritime region, and the 496MW Yey-Noirmoutier offshore wind farm in the region of Vendée.

In the meantime, Neoen and Areva exited the consortium and were replaced by the French bank Caisse des dépôts (CDC).

The current consortium of Engie (47%), EDP Renewables (43%), and CDC (10%), expects to receive permits to develop the two wind farms by early 2018, Tilot said.

The consortium also plans to start an official public consultation process on the two projects in early 2017.

It is still unclear if the consortium will stick with the original plan of using Adwen 8MW turbines on the two wind farms, following Areva’s exiting the two projects and selling its 50% stake in Adwen to the Siemens-Gamesa consortium.