France Begins Accepting Bids for $14 Billion Offshore Wind Initiative

On July 11, Francebegan accepting bids for a $14 billion initiative to build five offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW).

President Nicolas Sarkozy had announced earlier this year that five sites had been selected for this first phase of the wind farm program: Dieppe-Le Tréport (Seine-Maritime), Fécamp (Seine-Maritime), Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados), Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d'Armor), and Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique.

Currently, France has no offshore wind turbines and gets 38 percent of its energy from atomic plants—the highest amount worldwide

The Sarkozy government is seeking to generate 23 percent of the nation’s energy from renewable sources by the time the second phase of the program is completed in 2020. At that point, 6 GW of wind power, or about 1, 2000 turbines, will be installed offshore.

According to France’s English-language newspaper, The Connexion, French Minister of Ecology Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet commented called the requests for proposals is "a victory over climate skeptics and opponents of the Grenelle," as the French Renewable Energy Act is dubbed. She had won an internal Cabinet battle with Energy Minister Eric Besson, who had wanted the project scaled back to 2,000MW.

Companies now are forging partnerships in preparation for their bids on the wind initiative:

• France’s ArevasSA, a nuclear power giant that also makes wind turbines, and Spain’s Iberdrola Renovables, which constructs and manages power plants, will team up to jointly compete for two of the five zones off the French coast earmarked for development .
• Areva also signed an agreement to bid together for as much as 1,750 MW of the offshore project with the French energy producer GDF Suez SA and the French construction company Vinci SA.
• French energy infrastructure giant AlstomSA, French  renewable energy company EDF Energies Nouvelles, Danish energy provider DONG Energy, French new technology company Nass&Wind Offshore, French alternative power operator Poweo ENR, and French offshore specialist wpd offshore, also are pooling their expertise and their investment capacity within a consortium created to respond to the call for tenders.

However, the French electorate remains to be convinced. An organization called the Sustainable Environment Federation, which opposes wind power, says the "subsidies" for wind power will "not create a single job in France."The call for bids also led to the formation of an opposition group called Ni ZDE ni éoliennes"(neither wind zones nor wind turbines).

The initial round of bidding requires candidates to submit proposals by January 11, 2012, followed by pre-selection in April. 2012.  A final decision will be announced in 2013, after all risks have been assessed and the feasibility of the projects confirmed. Winning bids will be chosen based on such criteria as the price of electricity; and the social impact of the wind farms, including job creation. The installations will be put into service from 2015 to 2020.

The nation will open a second round of bidding in April 2012. Ministers are starting a consultation to identify where the new zones under that round would be, the government said.