A consortium led by EDF Renouvelables, with Innogy and Enbridge has been awarded the rights to develop the 600MW Dunkirk Round 3 offshore wind farm off the coast of France.
The joint venture will receive less than €50 per megawatt-hour for 20 years, French Environment Minister Francois de Rugy (pictured) said during a speech in the town of Saint-Nazaire today.
This is believed to be a record low for France. The feed-in-tariffs for France’s six first projects were lowered to an average of €150/MWh from between €180/MWh and €230/MWh last year after months of negotiations.
Commissioning of Dunkirk in the English Channel is scheduled for 2026.
Seven consortia were pre-selected and participated in the tender. The average price of bids was around €51/MWh with €70/MWh being the highest, it is understood.
In total, ten bidders originally expressed an interest in the rights for the zone.
French energy company Total formed a consortium with Orsted and Belgian developer Elicio for the project.
Other bidders included the Vents de Dunkerque consortium between Boralex, Eneco, Van Oord and Diamond Generating Europe.
German utility Eon joined in the Dunkerque Eoliennes en Mer consortium with Engie and EDPR while the Moulins de Flandres partnership between DEME Offshore, Shell and Quadran Energies Marines also formed for the project.
InControl France and Statoil also joined for the project while Parkwind and Valeco teamed up also.
The zone is located between 5km and 15km off the coast in the English Channel.
De Rugy announced the winner during a speech at the launch of the 480MW Saint-Nazaire offshore wind project.
He said: “Today in Saint-Nazaire, we are accelerating the deployment of offshore wind turbines in France.
“By 2022, 80 wind turbines installed offshore will produce 20% of the electricity needs of the Loire-Atlantique. Clean energy, synonymous with economic development.”
Saint-Nazaire is being developed by EDF and Enbridge and is due for commissioning in 2022.