The French government has shortlisted 13 companies or consortiums for the tender to build two 250 MW floating wind projects in the Mediterranean Sea by 2030. One of the projects, which would comprise up to 20 turbines should be located about 20 km off Port-la-Nouvelle in Aude, and the other about 20 km from Fos-sur-Mer. The two projects could be extended to reach a capacity of 750 MW in a second phase.
Pre-qualified bidders include a consortium of BlueFloatEnergy, Sumimoto Corporation and Akuo Energy, Eolienne Occitanie Grand Large and Eolienne Méditerranée Grand Large, two project companies of EDF Renewables and Maple Power (a joint-venture of Enbridge and CPPIB), a consortium of BayWa and Elicio, Océole (Equinor), Iberdrola, Ocean Winds (a 50/50 joint-venture between Energie and EDPR, RWE and Bourbon, Les Moulins du Leonis (Shell and EnBW), Archipel Energie Marine (Qair, TotalEnergies and Corio Generation), WPD, Vattenfall, Cobra Instalaciones y Servicios and Eni Plenitude.
The selected companies or consortiums will take part in the next phase of the tender process, the competitive dialogue, which will run until the end of 2022, allowing pre-qualified bidders and the French government to jointly outline the detailed criteria of the tender rules as well as to fine-tune the areas where the projects will be located. The choice of winners will be made in the autumn of 2023. Commissioning of the plants is scheduled for 2030. France targets 40 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050 and intends to to award 2 GW of projects each year from 2024.
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