Third French offshore tender announced

FRANCE: An area off the coast of Dunkirk, northern France, will be auctioned in France's third offshore tender, the energy ministry has announced, but few details have been revealed.

by David Weston 4 April 2016

The East Mole at Dunkirk harbour

The tenders will be operated with new procedures, which the energy ministry is calling "competitive dialogue".

It will allow negotiations between developers and the government to "clarify specifications and give them the opportunity to improve their offers", the ministry said.

Site studies will be carried prior to the tender deadline, in order for developers to readjust their plans.

Permitting will also be simplified, the ministry said. However, a final tender deadline or project size has not been announced.

It will be the third offshore project tender to be held in France. The first was in 2011, and saw the allocation of the 498MW Fecamp, 450MW Courselles-sur-Mer sites to Eolien Maritime France (EMF) — a consortium of EDF Energies Nouvelles and Dong Energy — and wpd; the 480MW Saint Nazaire zone to just EMF; and the 500MW Saint Brieuc site to Iberdrola and Eole-RES.

The second tender in 2013 awarded the 496MW Yeu and Noirmoutier project and 496MW Treport sites to the EDP Renovaveis, Engie (formerly GDF Suez) and Neoen consortium.