France picks 13 candidates for 500-MW floating wind tender

Hywind Scotland floating wind farm. Image Michal Wachucik ©Equinor.

August 2 (Renewables Now) - The French government on Tuesday chose 13 candidates for the second stage of its 500-MW floating wind tender involving two projects in the Gulf of Lion in the Mediterranean Sea.

The announcement comes after in March the government launched a competitive bidding procedure for the development of two 250-MW floating wind parks, one off Narbonne and one off the Gulf of Fos.

The latest press release says that each of the two plants could be expanded to 750 MW in a second phase for a combined 1.5 GW, which will be enough to cover the average electricity consumption of 1.1 million households.

Below you can find the companies and consortia that will participate in the competitive dialogue phase, which will run until end-2022. The winners should be announced in the autumn of 2023, while the commissioning of the wind parks is planned for 2030.

Consortium	BlueFloat Energy, Sumitomo Corporation and Akuo Energy
Partnership	EDF Renewables and Maple Power, a joint venture of Enbridge and CPPIB
Consortium	BayWa re and Elicio
Partnership	Oceole, a partnership led by Equinor
Company	Iberdrola SA
JV	Ocean Winds, 50/50 owned by Engie and EDPR
Partnership	RWE and Bourbon
Consortium	Les Moulins du leonis, including Shell and EnBW
Consortium	Marine Energy Archipelago, including Qair, TotalEnergies and Corio Generation
Consortium	Wpd, others
Company	Vattenfall
Company	Cobra Installations and Services SA
Company	Eni Plenitude

France aims to build 50 offshore wind parks with a combined capacity of 40 GW by 2050. On Friday, the government unveiled plans for an up to 1-GW offshore wind tender after identifying a suitable area off the island of Oleron.

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