France Reveals Potential Developers of Two Offshore Wind Farms

March 27, 2023, by Adnan Durakovic

France has selected candidates who will participate in the competitive dialogues for the two offshore wind farm projects located off the Ile d’Oléron (AO7) and Normandy (AO8).

The two wind farms will have a combined capacity of 2.5 GW.

The candidates selected to participate in the tendering procedure for the 1 GW Ile d’Oléron wind farm project are Ocean Winds; Groupement Energies du Méridien, a partnership between Corio Generation and Quair; Groupement Eoliennes en Mer Oléron Atlantique, a partnership between EDF Renouvelables and Maple Power; RWE; Iberdrola; Océole; Eni Plenitude; Groupement Oléron Energies Marines, a partnership between TotalEnergies and JERA Power; and the consortium of Skyborn and Cobra.

The Ile d’Oléron wind farm is located off the island of Oléron, more than 35 kilometres from the coast, beyond the limits of the Marine Nature Park of the Gironde estuary and the sea of Pertuis.

The 1.5 GW Centre Manche 2 (AO8) wind farm covers 260 square kilometres located 40-50 kilometres east of the Manche department.

The selected candidates for this tendering round include a consortium of Vattenfall, Skyborn and Banque des Territoires; a consortium of TotalEnergies and RWE; Groupement Eoliennes en Mer du Suroit, a partnership between EDF Renouvelables and Maple Power; Ocean Winds; Groupement Energies du Méridien, a partnership between Corio Generation and Quair; and Eni Plenitude.

The winners of the AO7 and AO8 tenders are scheduled to be announced at the beginning of 2024, and the two wind farms are expected to be commissioned in 2032.

As reported earlier, France has selected Eoliennes en Mer Manche Normandie, a special purpose company of EDF Renouvelables and Canada’s Maple Power, to develop the 1 GW Centre Manche 1 (AO4) wind farm.