The consortium, which also includes EDP Renewables, Neoen Marine and Areva, reaffirmed its commitment to develop 500MW of offshore wind near Le Tréport, northern France, and 500MW near the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier, western France.
The consortium met with more than 500 companies from Normandy, Picardy, Brittany, and Pays de la Loire in an effort to build a French offshore wind industry.
At the meeting with economic and political stakeholders in the northern French regions of Haute-Normandie and Picardie they said the developments would create nearly 6,000 direct and indirect jobs.
At Le Havre, four factories will be built to manufacture the nacelles, blades and wind turbines' other key components.
It is proposed the Le Havre and Saint-Nazaire ports will provide support platforms to build the wind farms.
The operation and maintenance centres will be at the ports of Dieppe and Tréport and on the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier.
In November, the GDF Suez-led consortium, which includes French developer Neoen and Portugal’s EDP Renewables, submitted bids to French energy regulator CRE for the 1GW second French tender. It will use Areva's new 8MW turbine.
Areva announced the creation of an R&D centre in Rouen, northern France, which will have about one hundred engineers.
