A wind farm that will be able to supply 800,000 homes with electricity. A consortium led by EDF will be responsible for building this park, the largest at sea planned to date in France, expected off Normandy by 2031, the Ministry of Energy Transition announced on Monday. This “Centre Manche 1” park will have a power of one gigawatt (GW). The wind turbines will be installed 32 km from the coast.
The project was awarded to the “Eoliennes en Mer Manche Normandie” consortium, bringing together EDF Renewables and the Canadian group Maple Power. The group, opposed in this call for tenders to five competitors, proposed a “very competitive” price for the sale of future electricity, indicates the ministry.
This price is less than 45 euros per megawatt hour (MWh), Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told the newspaper. The Channel Press. The previous offshore park awarded, that of Dunkirk in 2019, had also been won by EDF, on the basis of the unprecedented price of 45 euros (when these technologies were still at 200 euros per MWh a few years ago).
Various commitments
According to the ministry, the call for tenders for the “Centre Manche 1” park also made it possible to introduce new criteria “strengthening the influence of the project on the local economy and the environment”, the offers of the candidates having been noted on various commitments: blade recycling, contribution to a biodiversity protection fund, rate of use of SMEs for construction and operation, use of crowdfunding, etc.
Now, eight offshore wind farms have to date been entrusted to operators, largely dominated by EDF. The very first, facing Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique), was inaugurated last fall, 10 years after its award: 80 wind turbines which must ensure the equivalent of the annual electricity consumption of 700,000 people. While France intends to accelerate the deployment of this energy, four major public debates will be held this year to determine, by large coastline, the positioning of the future areas concerned.