The government hopes to launch a “massive” call for tenders in 2025 to deploy a whole series of offshore wind farms and thus meet its energy objectives, said Monday the Secretary of State for the Sea, Hervé Berville. The State has just launched a phase of global planning by coastline of the maritime areas to be developed, to extend offshore wind power in order to meet the country’s energy and climate challenges. “By the end of 2024 at the latest, we have specific areas, and in 2025 we have a massive call for tenders,” Hervé Berville told journalists on the sidelines of the annual Marine Energy Meetings of the Renewable Energies Union.
The State is aiming for an intermediate objective of 18 gigawatts (GW) of marine parks in 2035. Some 8 GW being currently built or in the pipes, there are therefore 10 GW left to allocate to developers, a very large volume corresponding to around ten parks. “Faced with this energy wall, we need a substantial call for tenders”, underlined Hervé Berville.
Only one offshore park in operation in France
Today, only one offshore park operates in France, off Saint-Nazaire, while the United Kingdom and Denmark already have several giant offshore parks. Knowing that it takes 7 to 8 years to bring a park into service in France, “it would be desirable to have a call for tenders for 10 GW” in 2025, he added, without however committing to this volume. “We will determine the range” at the end of the planning work, according to the connection capacities, the ports, the availability of skills, etc. “We must be lucid about the fact that we cannot procrastinate”, he said, insisting on the issue of energy security: “France’s energy loop by 2035-40 is far from be guaranteed”.
Project developers insisted on Monday on the importance of medium and long-term visibility, in particular for industrial reasons (ability to supply materials against a backdrop of European competition in wind power, to deploy skills… ). The planning will include a public debate organized for several weeks in the fall on all seafronts, under the aegis of the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP). Planning maps should be “ready” for mid-2024, Director General of Maritime Affairs Eric Banel said on Monday, “reasonably optimistic that this deadline will be met”.