France's Saint-Nazaire offshore wind park is fully commissioned

The 480-MW Saint-Nazaire wind farm off France’s western coast in the Atlantic Ocean, the first utility-scale offshore wind complex in the country, has achieved commercial operations.

The milestone was announced on Wednesday by EDF Renewables, which co-owns the plant with EIH Sarl, a subsidiary of Canada’s Enbridge Inc (TSE:ENB) and CPP Investments. An official inauguration ceremony is due to be held in Saint-Nazaire.

Located between 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) and 20 kilometres off the coast of the Loire-Atlantique department, the Saint-Nazaire wind farm produced first power in June and its last GE turbine was erected early in September. All of the 80 Haliade 150-6MW generators were in place and became fully operational later in the same month. The annual output of the machines is expected to cover 20% of the power consumption in Loire-Atlantique, or some 700,000 people, the developers estimate.

The Saint-Nazaire project was secured in a government call for tenders back in 2012. Construction works were initiated in September 2019.

France aims to generate 32% of its energy from renewable sources by 2030.

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