France pre-selects 10 bidders in 250-MW floating wind auction

The French government has pre-selected 10 candidates in the tender for a 250-MW floating offshore wind project south of Brittany, the Ministry of the Ecological Transition announced on Wednesday.

The tender for the construction and operation of a floating offshore wind farm with a power generation capacity of between 230 MW and 270 MW was launched at the end of April, with interested parties given until July 1 to submit proposals.

The shortlisted candidates will be able to take part in a competitive dialogue over the next months. A winner is due to be announced next year and the commissioning of the wind farm is planned for 2029.

France intends to install two floating wind farms south of Brittany, the other being of up to 500 MW. A public debate on these projects was held last year.

The pre-selected participants are: a consortium of CIP and ENI; Eoliennes Flottantes Bretagne Grand Large, a project company of EDF Renewables and Maple Power, which in turn is a joint venture between Enbridge and CPPIB; a consortium of Elicio and BayWa re; Equinor; Iberdrola; Ocean Winds, an offshore wind joint venture between Engie and EDPR; RWE; a consortium of Shell, Valeco, a subsidiary of EnBW, and Eolien en Mer Participations, a subsidiary of Caisse des depots et consignations; a consortium of TotalEnergies, Green Investment Group and Qair; and a consortium of wpd, Vattenfall and BlueFloat Energy.

Floating wind technology developer BW Ideol, meanwhile, said it has entered into a partnership agreement with EDF Renewables and Maple Power to cooperate on the design of the floating foundations in relation to the tender for the up to 270 MW project off the coast of southern Brittany.

BW Ideol chief executive Paul de la Gueriviere noted this will be the world’s first fully competitive floating commercial-scale tender.

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