Giants Gathering Around Third French Offshore Wind Tender

After Engie and EDP Renewable (EDPR) announced they are jointly taking part in the next stage of the third offshore wind call for tenders in France, the country will further see Iberdrola, EDF EN, and wpd participating in the new “competitive dialogue” tendering process.

The companies had until 6 March to submit their applications for the second phase of the competitive dialogue, and now French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE) has a period of one month to process the applications.

However, the submission of applications counts as one of the early steps in this new tender approach, as the one-month period that now started involves CRE delivering the list of candidates it proposes to select for the second phase to the Minister for Energy, who will then designate successful candidates and invite them to participate in the selection phase. The start date of this stage of the competitive dialogue is scheduled for April 2017 and is expected to end no later than October 2017, with the winner(s) announced at the start of 2018.

According to Spanish media, Iberdrola has applied for the second stage of the tender to build an offshore wind farm at the Dunkirk site, same as the Engie/ EDPR consortium. Iberdrola plans to develop a 250-750MW project at the offshore site, which would be completed at put to operation in 2022.

EDF EN spokesperson confirmed to Offshore WIND that the company is participating in the next stage, but did not give out any further details.

Wpd is aiming to set up a 500MW wind farm some 15 kilometres off Oléron Island, the site that was added to the Round 3 tender in 2016. The company started developing a proposal for the construction of the Oléron project in 2013. Wpd’s participant’s profile for Seanergy Normandy 2017 states that it is taking part in the latest tender.

All the aforementioned companies are already involved in the development of offshore wind in France.

In the first round of tenders in 2012, wpd has been co-awarded the Fécamp and Courseulles-sur-Mer offshore wind projects as part of a consortium led by EDF EN, which further won the Saint-Nazaire site together with Nass & Wind. The Saint-Brieuc site has been awarded to Ailes Marines, a consortium led by Iberdrola.

The second call for tenders, launched in 2013, resulted in GDF SUEZ (now Engie) and EDP Renewables winning two sites, one located off Tréport and the other between Noirmoutier and Île d’Yeu.

Offshore WIND Staff