France has revealed plans to tender 9200MW of fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind.
Paris said its AO10 process launching at the beginning of 2025 will aim to progress 4GW of fixed-bottom capacity in the North Sea coast and 5.2GW of floaters in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The plan was announced by Energy Minister Olga Givernet during a visit to the 500MW Fecamp wind farm (pictured) off Normandy.
Ministers Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Fabrice Loher and Givernet presented the maritime planning following the public consultation ‘The Sea in Debate’.
This is a decision by the state to reconcile all the issues relating to the sea and the activities linked to it, including fishing and aquaculture, but in particular the development of offshore wind power, providing for the launch of the tenth call for tenders for the installation of offshore wind farms (AO10), as well as the development of strong protection zones for biodiversity at sea.
The Sea in Debate took place simultaneously on the four maritime facades of France, between 20 November, 2023 and 26 April, 2024, and mobilised more than 21,000 people, from 375 events.
The state and RTE, as project owners, participated and provided the public with a lot of information.
Based on the lessons learned from the debate, the decision to draw up strong biodiversity protection zones at sea also includes the mapping of priority areas for the development of offshore wind power over the next 10 years and 2050.
This mapping will allow the launch in the coming months of the AO10 process for a total power of 8GW to 10GW with the objective of an allocation in the fall of 2026.
Offshore studies will be carried out by the government in these areas from this autumn.
“This call for tenders should make it possible to achieve the objective of 18GW in service in 2035,” said the government.
Minister for Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention Pannier-Runacher said: “Scientists tell us that renewable energies are essential to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Offshore wind obviously plays an important role in this.
“As the President of the Republic recalled at the Assises de la mer last November, we have set ourselves the objective of reaching 45GW of offshore wind by 2050: this new stage of the public debate is part of this.
“I welcome the strong mobilisation of citizens and local stakeholders around this debate, which has made it possible to give visibility to all aspects of offshore wind planning, including the crucial ones of preserving marine environments.
“This exercise has made it possible to identify areas on our various maritime facades to allocate around 15GW in the next 10 years: it will enable us to reach a milestone in the decarbonisation of our energy mix in the years to come.”
Minister Delegate for Energy Givernet said: “Offshore wind is a key part of our energy strategy, which should provide 20% of our electricity production by 2050. This planning is crucial to achieving our ambitions, which will be detailed in the next multi-year energy programme.
“The areas identified will make it possible to launch, in the coming months, a new call for tenders for offshore wind, affecting all French maritime facades.
“These initiatives provide valuable visibility for the renewable energy sector and the entire industry that supports it, thus generating many local jobs.”
President of French trade body the Renewable Energies Syndicate (SER) Jules Nyssen said: “The Messmer plan made it possible to deploy several nuclear reactors in a short time in our country. Today, we must reproduce this ambition for offshore wind power.
“The maritime planning presented today is a very important first step, and the announcement of an ambitious multi-site call for tenders will mobilise all the players in the value chain.
“We welcome this progress, and now wish to work with the government to build a precise and rhythmic schedule for future calls for tenders. Our sector will be able to respond!”
SER Offshore Wind Commission President Pierre Peysson added: “We have been waiting for years for this decision, which gives visibility to the entire sector and to the territories.
“The deployment of 45GW on 2% of our vast maritime space will generate significant economic benefits and will make it possible to produce nearly a third of our national electricity consumption tomorrow.
“Competitive, the offshore wind sector will represent more than 20,000 jobs by 2035, thanks to the launch of AO10.”
“From now on, this planning constitutes the essential sail of the ship ‘France’ and the maintenance of the schedule and the revision of the specifications of the calls for tenders are the wind necessary to allow us to collectively reach the set course.”