France Readies Oléron Offshore Wind Tender

France will start the first phase of the competitive dialogue procedure for the offshore wind area off Oléron in the Atlantic in the following months as part of the country’s Round 3 tender.

Following public consultation, a 120km2 area was identified as suitable for the development of an offshore wind farm with a capacity of up to 500MW.

Further technical studies on the area, including weather conditions, sedimentology, bathymetry, and environmental risks will be submitted in April.

The competitive dialogue is expected to start following the review and the approval of the project by the French Energy Regulatory Commission (CRE).

One of the developers expected to participate in the competitive dialogue is Wpd Offshore who back in 2013 started developing a proposal for the construction of a EUR 2 billion, 500MW wind farm some 15 kilometres off Oléron, in preparation for the Round 3 tender.

Oléron was added to the Round 3 tender in November 2016. The second offshore wind zone offered in the Round 3 was an area off the coast of Dunkirk with a capacity of up to 750MW.

The competitive dialogue procedure is being carried out in two stages: pre-selection and selection.

Dunkirk is currently in the pre-selection phase with CRE currently assessing the applications. In April, CRE will deliver the list of candidates it proposes to select for the second phase of the competitive dialogue to the country’s Ministry for Energy, which will then designate successful candidates, notify all other candidates on the rejection of their applications, and invite selected candidates to participate in the selection phase of the competitive dialogue.

The competitive dialogue procedure for Dunkirk is scheduled to start in May, at the end of which the candidates will be invited to submit their bids.

The winner of the tender is expected to be announced in 2018.

The Round 3 tender comes within the framework of the implementation of the Multi-annual energy programme (PPE) under the law on the energy transition to green growth.

PPE sets out the plan for the development of 3GW of offshore wind capacity in France by 2023, with further 3GW in the pipeline post-2023. The program also calls for the approval of up to 2GW of floating wind and tidal projects in addition to the 100MW that will be in service by 2023.