While the floating wind power sector is maturing, France is however lagging behind other European countries. To accelerate its development, France has asked the European Commission for authorization to support the winner of the call for tenders for the first floating wind farm in southern Brittany with 2.08 billion euros.
In order not to distort competition in the single market, EU rules provide that state aid is subject to authorization by the European Commission.
However, these rules are more flexible when aiming to help Member States meet the EU’s renewable energy targets (at least 32% by 2030).
The Commission has thus found that this French measure has an incentive effect on the development of renewable energies and has a limited impact on competition.
Floating wind: a maturing technology
There are two types of wind turbines at sea: wind turbines placed at the bottom of the water and wind turbines floating on the surface. Although these two technologies have the same function, that is to transform wind energy into electrical energy, floating wind turbines have several advantages.
- Their mast is not anchored in the seabed, which allows them to be used in deeper areas (50 m to 200 m), far from the coast, where the wind is strong and regular.
- The installation and maintenance of equipment are facilitated.
- This technology seems to have a very low impact on the environment, because its implementation does not require heavy drilling.
In 2015, ADEME launched a call for projects, which resulted in the construction of several pilot floating wind farms in the Mediterranean (the Groix/Belle-Île pilot project having been abandoned[1]).
These pilots made it possible to acquire environmental data and first lessons on wind turbine float technologies.
Floating wind farm projects in southern Brittany and the Mediterranean
The multiannual energy program (PPE) sets, for the 2019-2023 period, the continued development of offshore wind power with the objective of reaching 2.4 GW of installed capacity at sea (fixed and floating) in 2023 and 5 GW in 2028.
To achieve this objective, various calls for tenders[2] have thus been launched, mostly for fixed wind power projects, but also for floating wind power installations.
The decision of the European Commission regarding the support measure taken by France, thus concerns the national competitive call for tenders AO5, which should lead to the construction of a first floating wind farm of 250 MW and whose construction will begin in 2025.
This project will be located in southern Brittany, off Lorient, Groix and Belle-Île, near the pilot abandoned by the project leaders in 2022, partly for economic reasons.
By financing this new project to the tune of 2.08 billion euros, over a period of 20 years from its commissioning in 2028, France hopes to make up for part of its delay and accelerate the development of a sector emerging, but promising.
[1] Project led by the Eolfi-Shell-CGN consortium, Caisse des dépôts.
[2] To have a detailed view of all the projects, do not hesitate to consult the dedicated page.
