France has awarded a total of 118MW to five projects in its second onshore wind auction, less than one-fourth of the 500MW capacity on offer.
The winners include French company Engie, Canadians Boralex, Elicio from Belgium and UK outfit RES.
Projects include two repowering jobs and an extension to an existing onshore wind farm.
The agreed price has not been disclosed. Projects successful in the country’s first onshore auction earlier this year received an average price of €65.40 a megawatt-hour.
It is understood that the take up was low because eligible projects now need to be fully permitted which wasn’t the case in the earlier auction.
Permitting had slowed down due to a court decision late last year that annulled parts of the authorisation process. A new permitting procedure still needs to be confirmed.
Wind farms eligible for the latest auction had to have seven turbines or more and have at least one machine with a minimum capacity of 3MW. Construction work should not have started either.
Developers had to provide bank guarantees of €30,000 per MW and will have to apply for grid access within two months of selection.
The deadline for the country’s third onshore wind energy tender has meanwhile been pushed back by four months to April 2019.
Image: Pixabay
France auctions 118MW onshore
By EBS