French wind farms increase generation by 21%

Wind farms in France generated 12.12 TWh of electricity in the first half of 2016, marking a 21% year-on-year increase, preliminary statistics released by the energy ministry on Friday show.

From January till June, wind power supplied 4.8% of the electricity demand in France, slightly up from 4.0% achieved a year ago.

France had 10,886 MW of grid-connected installed capacity at the end of June with 523 MW added since January. Most of the installations, or 382 MW, were added in the second quarter of 2016.

The Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine region kept its top position in terms of overall capacity installed with 2,634 MW, just about a quarter of all wind farms in France and 52 MW of new capacity added since January.

France had a pipeline of 655 onshore wind power projects with a combined capacity of 7,731 MW at the end of June. Of these, 216 projects with a total capacity of 2,261 MW have already signed grid-connection contracts and at least some of them will start feeding electricity to the grid in the coming quarters.

Offshore, the pipeline holds 14 projects with a combined capacity of 3,258 MW.

At the end of July, French Ecology Minister Segolene Royal unveiled the two winners at the country's tender for pilot floating offshore wind farms. One of them is the Quadran-led EolMed consortium with a 24 MW project near Gruissan.

The other -- a consortium of Eolfi and CGN Europe Energy with their 24 MW project near the island of Groix, off the east coast of France.

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