Installation and assembly of wind turbines off Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), April 12, 2022 (AFP/Archives/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
The Saint-Nazaire wind farm, where Emmanuel Macron is going on Thursday, is the very first offshore field to come into service off the French coast, pending perhaps the quarantine of others envisaged by the State. Here is where France is, lagging behind other countries like the United Kingdom.
– Construction sites
France, which has 2,800 km of coastline, decided to embark on offshore wind power in 2009, but no project had materialized until this year.
From administrative procedures to legal action, it now takes an average of 10 years for a site to come into service in France, when it takes five in Germany, six in the United Kingdom… and when the pioneer world, Denmark, installed its first turbine in 1991.
Saint-Nazaire, awarded in 2012 to EDF and the Canadian Enbridge, is therefore the very first to emerge: 80 wind turbines, spread between 12 and 20 km off Pouliguen and Croisic, over 78 km2. An installed capacity of 480 megawatts (MW) capable of supplying 700,000 people.
A 2 billion euro project, this site saw its first foundations come out of the water in 2021, the first wind turbine was connected in the spring of 2022, the last in September. It is expected to enter full production by the end of 2022.
Offshore wind power in France (AFP/Baptiste QUEUCHE)
In total, seven parks (3.6 gigawatts for all) have to date been awarded to operators. The shipyards of Saint-Brieuc, object of friction with the fishermen, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp are under construction.
On the industrial front, the country notably hosts the factories of GE in Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg, Siemens Gamesa in Le Havre. According to the Observatoire des energies de la mer, the sector provided more than 6,000 jobs in 2021.
– Projects
Other calls for tenders have been launched, in Brittany and for the first time in the Mediterranean. Another should be by the end of 2022 for a second park off Calvados (“Centre Manche 2”).
The Mediterranean call for tenders concerns the construction by 2030 of two floating parks. This technology in development, never before used for a commercial wind farm in France, is often seen as the future of offshore wind power because it allows you to set up at great depths, which has several advantages: there is more wind, and the wind turbines are farther from the coast, therefore from view.
Construction site for the concrete bases of the wind turbines of a future offshore field off Fécamp (Seine-Maritime), February 14, 2022 (AFP/Archives/Sameer Al-DOUMY)
Among the projects, that of Oléron was the subject of intense public debate. The planned site was also far from the coast. It provides for the construction by 2030 of a park on the seabed, which could be supplemented by a second park.
NGOs, concerned about the conservation of birds, and the town hall of Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron, worried about fishing, have just announced appeals for it to be further removed.
– Ambitions
If France wants to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 to fight against global warming, all projections highlight an essential role for offshore wind power, whether the country is relaunching nuclear power or not.
For RTE, the electricity network manager, 22 to 62 GW will be needed, depending on the combinations chosen.
Head of State Emmanuel Macron supports the establishment of 50 parks (40 GW) in total by 2050.
But this perspective means accelerating the pace of projects.
“Floatgen”, the first wind turbine at sea in France, floating, off Croisic (Loire-Atlantique) (AFP / Archives / Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
The sector calls for planning by seafront to achieve this, and cites Germany as an example and its fine mapping with zoning drawn up for the short and long term.
The bill for the acceleration of renewables, expected in the Council of Ministers on September 26, includes this pooling of debates by seafront.
The sector is asking the State to preposition large potential areas before refining the debates locally, warning of an “air pocket” after 2023, the date of the last calls for tenders planned to date.
© 2022 AFP
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