Sian Crampsie
The first four floating offshore wind farms constructed off the coast of France should receive a feed-in tariff of €240/MWh, the French government says.
The government has issued draft legislation that provisionally sets the FiT for the projects, which were awarded under a tender held in 2016.
The tariff must be approved by the Higher Energy Council and the energy regulator, CRE. It will apply to four 24 MW floating wind energy projects, including the Golfe du Lyon project situated 13 km off the coast in the Leucate zone, and the Provence Grand Large wind farm, 15 km off the French coast.
The other two floating wind farm projects in France are the Groix & Belle-Ile off the Brittany coast, and the Eolmed project.
All of the wind farms are expected to start operating by 2020. Golfe du Lyon will feature GE 6 MW wind turbines and is being developed by Engie, EDPR and CDC. EDF EN’s Provence Grand Large will use Siemens 8 MW turbines. Eolmed will be built by Quadran, Bouygues and Ideol in the Mediterranean Sea using Senvion machines.
