The French government has selected a raft of big-name developers to fight it out for the 1500MW AO6 Mediterranean floating offshore wind tender.
In total 13 players or consortiums have been prequalified for the development rights race for two 250MW projects, which can be expanded to 750MW each.
Iberdrola, Vattenfall and Ocean Winds are among those taking part as solo bidders.
Consortiums including the Océole tie up, a partnership between Equnior, Q Energy and Green Giraffe, and the Marine Energy Archipelago venture of TotalEnergies, Qair and Corio Generation have also been pre-qualified.
BlueFloat Energy, Sumitomo Corporation and Akuo have been selected in a consortium as has EDF Renewables and Maple Power.
RWE and marine contractor Bourbon are another grouping while Shell and EnBW’s Les Moulins du Leonis partnership are also bidding.
The AO6 prequalification announcement represents the start of the next phase in the tender process, the so-called competitive dialogue, allowing pre-qualified bidders and the French government to jointly outline the detailed criteria of the tender rules as well as to fine tune the areas where the projects will be located.
The competitive dialogue period will run to the end of 2022. The choice of the winner(s) will be made in the autumn of 2023, for commissioning of the parks planned for 2030.
“Our participation in this new French offshore wind tender demonstrates Vattenfall engagement to grow in France and in floating offshore wind,” said Yara Chakhtoura, Managing Director of Vattenfall’s Wind business in France.
“The two proposed areas, and their future extensions, will bring important industrial and economic opportunities to the Mediterranean region.
“These projects fit with our strategy to consolidate our position as a leading global developer of offshore wind energy and contribute to our goal to enable fossil-free living within one generation.”
The BlueFloat Energy partnership aims to “act as a catalyser for the local supply chain development by deploying a strategic vision for the Mediterranean region that builds on our local combined pipeline of more than 8GW of floating wind projects”, the consortium stated.