French Offshore Wind Tender Enters Competitive Dialogue Stage

France’s Commission de régulation de l’énergie (CRE) has opened a competitive dialogue process towards selecting the developer of an offshore wind farm off the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy.

The process will be carried out in three phases: the selection of applications, competitive dialogue, and tender submissions and the selection of a winner.

The procedure is scheduled to be completed and the winner announced in 2022.

The deadline for the submission of applications is 12 March at 12 noon local time. Questions can be submitted by 12 February, CRE said.

The area selected for the development of the wind farm, France’s eighth, is located more than 32 kilometres off the coast of Normandy.

The wind farm will have a capacity of between 900 MW and 1,050 MW.

France is in the process of putting 8.75 GW of offshore wind capacity out to tender by 2028.

The country already has seven offshore wind projects in the pipeline, including the 600 MW Dunkirk tender held in 2019 and the six projects approved earlier. There are also four demonstration floating wind projects under development.

In total, France will have up to around 12.4 GW of fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind capacity either in operation or under development by the end of 2028.