French wind power deployments fall in H1 but hit record output

France deployed 400 MW of new wind power capacity in the first half of 2018 and recorded the highest ever six-month wind generation levels, official statistics show.

The fresh capacity additions are down from 558 MW installed in the first half of 2017. According to the data, released by the French government on Thursday, 42 new plants came online in the the country between January and June, bringing the cumulative installed wind power capacity to 13,998 MW. Of the total, almost two-thirds, or 9,200 MW, are installations with capacities of between 8 MW and 12 MW. Most of the capacity, standing at 13,956 MW, is located in mainland France, while 42 MW of the wind parks are situated in overseas territories.

By region, Hauts-de-France boasts the highest installed wind power capacity, totalling 3,494 MW, of which 109 MW were put on stream in the first half. Grand Est region added 68 MW, coming second in terms of cumulative installed capacity, with 3,167 MW. Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, Corsica and the overseas departments did not deploy any capacity in the reporting period.

France’s wind farms produced the record 14.2 TWh in the first half of 2018, mainly thanks to the favourable weather conditions. The output covered 5.7% of the national electricity consumption.

At the end of June, France had a pipeline of 11,259 MW, including 2,323 MW of projects that have already signed grid-connection contracts. The pipeline includes 10 offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 3,027 MW.

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