Macron: France to Build 50 Offshore Wind Farms by 2050

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will have around 40 GW of offshore wind capacity in operation by 2050.

This capacity corresponds to around 50 offshore wind farms, President Macron said in a speech at GE’s steam turbine factory for nuclear power plants in Belfort.

The offshore wind target is part of a larger push by France to reach carbon-neutrality by 2050, including the construction of six new nuclear reactors.

”As of this year, we will be commissioning the first offshore wind farm off Saint -Nazaire,” President Macron said in his speech.

”But here too, what we have started to do is to recreate and deploy a French industrial sector. The factories in Le Havre, Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg will provide all the necessary equipment and we will continue to develop industrial employment and investments there too so that these strong choices for offshore wind power are accompanied by the creation of jobs everywhere on our territory.”

Macron also said that France will set aside EUR 1 billion to help the development of emerging technologies such as floating wind, with the calls for projects to be released in the following days.

France, which currently has 2 MW of offshore wind capacity in operation, is in the process of putting 8.75 GW of offshore wind capacity out to tender by 2028.

The country already has nine offshore wind projects in the pipeline, including the ongoing tender for a commercial floating offshore wind project off the south of Brittany with a capacity of up to 270 MW, the 600 MW Dunkirk tender held in 2019, and the six projects approved earlier. There are also four demonstration floating wind projects under development.

Under the current plan, 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.

President Macron’s entire speech, in French, can be watched below:

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