EDF wins tender for three French offshore wind farms

The EDF Group has joined the Iberdrola-Eole-RES consortium winning three tenders for French offshore wind energy development rights.

As part of the French Government’s aim to install some 3000 MW of offshore wind capacity by 2018, the European Consortium led by EDF will develop up to 1500 MW of wind power at the Saint-Nazaire, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp sites.

The Consortium includes Danish group DONG Energy, Nass & Wind Offshore and WPD Offshore. French engineering company Alstom will supply its Haliade 150 wind turbine, which will be manufactured at four newly constructed facilities in Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg.

The projects will create around 5000 long-term jobs on the manufacturing side and a further 2500 direct and indirect positions.

Alstom’s Haliade 150 wind turbine will be the first French offshore turbine, a prototype of which was recently installed in Basse-Loire.

“We [are now planning to] set in motion a fully-fledged and lasting industrial sector in France that will finally serve export markets too,” says Alstom CEO Patrick Kron.

The order for the three wind farms, which will require approximately 240 turbines, will be worth over $2 billion for Alstom. Construction of the new facilities will start in 2013 with production beginning in 2014.

The Consortium will also set up local units to construct the foundations, assemble the turbines and undertake the offshore installation, as well as operation and maintenance.

“This success represents the beginning of a new industrial adventure in renewable energy for France, with the creation of about 7500 jobs for the turbines manufacturing, the foundations, the construction of the farms and their maintenance,” says EDF CEO Henri Proglio. “Our Group has made the regional development a strategic objective.”

For further information:
www.edf.com/the-edf-group-42667.html
www.alstom.com/

13 April 2012

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