An EDF-led consortium will be responsible for building the largest offshore wind farm planned to date in France, which is expected in Normandy by 2031, the Energy Transition Ministry announced on Monday.
This “Centre Manche 1” park will have a capacity of one gigawatt (GW), enough to supply electricity to 800,000 homes. The wind turbines will be installed 32 km from the coast.
The project was awarded to the “Eoliennes en Mer Manche Normandie” consortium, which brings together EDF Renewables and the Canadian group Maple Power.
A “very competitive” price
The group, opposed in this tender by five competitors, proposed a “very competitive” price for the sale of future electricity, the ministry says.
This price is less than 45 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told the newspaper. The channel press. The previous marine park awarded, the one in Dunkerque in 2019, had also been won by EDF, based on the unprecedented price of 45 euros (when these technologies were still at 200 euros per MWh a few years ago).
According to the ministry, the tender for the “Centre Manche 1” park also made it possible to introduce new criteria “reinforcing the influence of the project on the local economy and the environment”, having noted the offers of the candidates in Miscellaneous Commitments: recycling of blades, contribution to a biodiversity protection fund, rate of use of SMEs for construction and exploitation, use of crowdfunding, etc.
France has 8 offshore wind farms
Now, to date, eight offshore wind farms have been entrusted to operators, largely dominated by EDF.
The first of them, in front of Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), was inaugurated last autumn, 10 years after it was awarded: 80 wind turbines that must ensure the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 700,000 people.
Although France intends to accelerate the deployment of this energy, four major public debates will take place this year to determine, by long coastline, the positioning of the future areas in question.
Source: BFM TV
