French minister of the Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, announced plans for offshore wind power auctions of up to 10GW. It comes in line with France’s 2050 Net Zero target and increasing their energy sovereignty. The current offshore wind capacity in France is just under 0.5GW, with only one operational wind farm off the coast of Saint-Nazaire.

France Playing Catch Up

In June this year, France set an 18GW objective for offshore wind by 2035, followed by 40GW in 2050. However, it has not yet set out a road map to reach this. The French Minister’s interview with Ouest France has indicated she will announce auctions for offshore wind farms of up to 10GW. These could be opened towards the end of 2024 or the start of 2025. Previous auctions have only been between 0.5 to 1GW.

By the end of 2023, there are two more offshore wind farms set to come online, Saint-Brieuc and Fécamp. This would bring total offshore wind capacity to 1.5GW. Additionally, the results of a recent auction for three floating offshore farms in the South and in Brittany will be released in Q1 2024. Further to this, there is another 3.5GW of offshore wind power in the pipeline. Some of these projects were granted as far back as 2012. However, they have experienced substantial delays in their progress and launch. These setbacks stem from various challenges, such as permit-related complications and renegotiations of tariffs. This has left…

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