The results of the call for offshore wind tenders in the Dunkirk area in France will be released in March, said French Secretary of State Sébastien Lecornu.
The Dunkirk offshore wind tender will represent an additional capacity of between 250MW and 750MW in French waters.
WindEurope expects the construction offshore France to commence in 2021 and turn the country into Europe’s fourth-biggest offshore wind market, with about 7GW in capacity expected by 2030.
France’s energy regulator Commission de régulation de l’énergie (CRE) has pre-selected ten bidders for developing an offshore wind farm in the area including Vattenfall, Statoil, Iberdrola in consortium with RES, Elicio, a consortium of Engie and EDPR , InControl France, a consortium of Parkwind and Valeco, Deme Concessions Wind, a consortium of EDF EN with Innogy and Enbridge, and the Canadian Boralex with CMI5i Pastor.
The wind farm project is expected to be commissioned in 2022, according to the country’s government.
The Dunkirk area is part of France’s third round of tenders for the development of offshore wind selected due to its favorable conditions and supported by the region’s elected officials.
The Round 3 tender comes within the framework of the implementation of the Multi-annual energy programme (PPE) which 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 country currently has no commercial offshore wind farms in operation, with the 2MW Floatgen demonstrator project being the closest to offshore deployment .