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French offshore wind tenders
30.08.10France is going ahead with plans to tender 10 offshore wind sites with a capacity of up to 3GW in September, says the Energy Ministry.
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The ministry had planned to release details of the tender in May.
Officials said the tender will create investments of €10bn ($12.7bn) based on a cost of €3.5m per MW.
The government expects successful bidders to build about 600 wind turbines by around 2015. It also hopes to hold tenders which will create another 3GW of capacity by 2020.
France does not currently have any offshore wind capacity, despite its extensive coastline.
A tender held in 2004 bore little fruit, with the only successful bid - for 105MW - held up in the planning process ever since.
The new tender will include zones in the English Channel and the North Sea, officials say.
Interested companies will be invited to submit bids for the areas, stipulating the price at which they will be able to sell power to utility EDF.
The French government says it will take action to encourage a domestic wind turbine industry between now and 2015. France currently imports all its turbines.
Source: Recharge
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