BREAKING: France Reveals Normandy Offshore Wind Tender Finalists

Six companies and consortia are moving forward in France’s competitive tender to build a wind farm offshore Normandy.

Back in January, France’s Commission de régulation de l’énergie (CRE) opened a competitive dialogue process to select the developer of the offshore wind farm off the Cotentin Peninsula.

The six companies and consortia whose applications have been selected are Eoliennes en Mer Manche Normandie, a project company of EDF Renouvelable and Maple Power, a joint venture of Enbridge and CPPIB; Iberdrola Renovables France; Ocean Winds; Shell; a consortium formed by the Total and RWE groups; and a consortium of Vattenfall, wpd, and the Banque des Territoires.

The selected candidates will now enter a competitive dialogue procedure with the state bodies. The dialogue aims to reduce project costs and secure their implementation by giving candidates the opportunity to improve their offers during the procedure.

The designation of the winner in France’s fourth offshore wind tendering procedure is scheduled for 2022, and the wind farm is expected to be commissioned in 2028.

”I welcome the opening of the competitive dialogue for this fourth call for tenders and the interest it arouses, which underlines the economic dynamism of the sector. The wind conditions and the seabed off Normandy are very favorable for offshore wind power, which makes it possible to install wind turbines that produce a lot of energy, under competitive economic conditions,” said Barbara Pompili, France’s Minister for the Ecological Transition.

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.