Shell and its consortium partners have pulled the plug on their plans to develop the 24MW Groix & Belle-Ile floating wind pilot off northern France amid supply chain and cost pressures.
The oil & gas major confirmed all sponsors, which also include Banque des Territoires and China General Nuclear Power Corporation, have withdrawn from the project.
“The economic conditions linked to the project have been significantly modified, calling into question, for all the partners of the consortium the economic viability of the project,” a Shell spokesperson said.
Shell added that the project faced “several technical, commercial and financial challenges all in the context of constantly increasing costs” and “very strong” supply chain constraints.
The French government selected Eolfi and its partners to develop the Groix & Belle-Ile floating wind pilot off the southern coast of Brittany in 2016, one of four planned around the country’s coastline.
Eolfi was subsequently acquired by Shell in 2019. In the same year, the consortium selected Vestas to supply 9.5MW turbines for the project and signed off on a state support agreement to build the wind farm.
Naval Energies, which had been lined up to supply the floating foundations for Groix & Belle-Ile, was acquired by Saipem in June last year after its parent company Naval Group announced it was exiting the offshore wind sector.
At the time, Mauro Piasere, head of Saipem’s offshore new energies business unit, highlighted that the acquisition would position Saipem “in the competition for the award of the floating wind project of Groix & Belle-Ile”.