Green Light for Brittany's First Offshore Windfarm

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--One of France's first large-scale offshore windfarms is ready to start construction after the developer received all three administrative authorisations required.

The 496-megawatt (MW) Saint-Brieuc project, located in the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, will be the first offshore windfarm in the Brittany region of northwest France. Developer and operator Ailes Marines said the permissions clear the way for construction and operation. The company is a joint venture owned by Spanish energy major, Iberdrola S.A. (PINK:IBDRY) (Bilbao, Spain) and Eole-RES (Avignon, France). The project will cost 2.5 billion euro ($2.7 billion).

"We are delighted to receive the authorisations, which validates the work undertaken over the past five years by Ailes Marines and its contractors to deliver all of the necessary surveys," said Emmanuel Rollin, Ailes Marines project director. "These efforts have been rewarded, and we are very proud of that. We warmly thank all the people who supported and who accompanied us in developing this project so far. This is an important day for the project, which leads us in to a new phase of development, and a step further towards the project being delivered."

The project will use 62 turbines rated at 8 MW each from Adwen (Bremen, Germany), which is now part of Spanish renewable energy company Gamesa Corporation Technology S.A. (MCE:GAM) (Zamudio, Spain). When commissioned, the windfarm will be capable of supplying 1,850 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity per year, which will power approximately 850,000 homes. Ailes Marines secured the Saint-Brieuc project in 2012 as part of France's first ever offshore wind tender. For additional information, see April 12, 2012, article - EDF Wins Majority of French Offshore Projects.

Unlike other major European Union (EU) nations such as the U.K. and Germany, France has been slow to adopt offshore wind, but since 2012, there have been two offshore wind tenders calling for the construction of six windfarms with a combined generating capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW) by 2020. A third offshore tender process for the Dunkirk region off the northern coast of the country is planned.

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