By Rikki Stancich

Only days before Christmas rumours surfaced, once again, that the French government was setting a launch date for the tender process that will kick off the construction of France’s first offshore wind farms.

France has pledged to develop a wind power output capacity of 25,000 MW by 2020, including 6,000 MW in offshore wind capacity. However, the tender process for its offshore wind portfolio was repeatedly delayed throughout the latter half of 2010, triggering concerns that France risks lagging behind its European counterparts when it comes to wind energy engineering innovation.

Now industry sources say January 2011 could see France's offshore wind tender process finally launched, according to a report by Reuters. The move will not come a moment too soon.

France’s strong offshore wind resources have prompted predictions that its offshore wind sector could surpass the onshore market in terms of installed capacity by 2035. But in mid-December 2010, PriceWaterHouseCoopers issued a report warning the French government that it risked missing the boat on offshore wind and domestic manufacturing opportunities if it did not quickly launch its tender process. The findings of the report were based on interviews with more than 60 senior executives at wind power firms.

To gain insight into why France is blowing cold on offshore wind,Wind Energy Update approached Philippe Degonzague, head of group strategy at PWC.

Wind Energy Update: What has been the cause of delays in launching the tender for offshore wind?

Philippe Degonzague: We don’t honestly know the reason. France’s minister for the environment said there will be a meeting by the end of 2010 on this topic, but did not specify that the tender would be launched then. 

Wind Energy Update: What is France’s estimated offshore capacity?

Philippe Degonzague: Nobody has carried this out this kind of research. France’s bid process is for 6GW by 2020.

Wind Energy Update: France has a considerable offshore wind potential, a huge amount of engineering capability, and has the right facilities in place to accommodate large-scale build out of offshore wind. Why does it keep stalling – and why are its targets for offshore wind so low compared to other countries’ targets?

Philippe Degonzague: Today France’s ports such as Cherbourg, Fecamp and Le Havre are already well-equipped to handle offshore wind development. They do need upgrades, but they are already much better equipped than the UK’s ports.

And we have industry players such as Areva and Alstom that are participating in industry know-how – Areva is very active in Germany, and Alstom, in Spain. But the real challenge is innovation. Currently France is behind when it comes to innovation and we risk falling even further behind. 

Why are the targets so low? France’s percentage of nuclear capacity is much higher than the rest of Europe’s. We don’t need as much renewable energy as the UK, because we have so much nuclear capacity.

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Rikki Stancich: rstancich@gmail.com