The Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing has published on 27 January a complete press brief detayling the agenda of the forthcoming first call for tenders for offshore wind in France.
5 pre-selected zones
The pre-identified 5 development zones have been confirmed, i.e. off the coasts of: Le Trépor (110 km2, 750 MW), Fécamp (88 km2, 500 MW), Courseulles-sur-Mer (77 km2, 500 MW), Saint-Brieuc (180 km2, 500 MW), and Saint-Nazaire (78 km2, 750 MW).
Agenda
The following agenda should be followed:
- public consultation of the stakeholderes on the forthcoming call: from 1 to 28 February 2011;
- launch of the call for tender: May 2011;
- deadline for submission of the tenders: 30 November 2011;
- award decision: first semester 2012;
- checking the feasibility of the project: summer 2013;
- start of operation of the installations: 2015.
Award criteria
Some of the award criteria pre-identified by the Ministry are: price, quality of the industrial project; respect of the environmental marine environment; respect of the fishing activities; the social effects of the project, in particular as regards benefits for the wind industry. The discriminatory aspects of the last criteria would be interesting to follow up.
Regulatory framework
The regulation of the development of offshore wind has been widely debatted along the last few years. It has resulted in a simplified legislative framework, based on Law of 12 July 2010, so-called Law "Grenelle 2". The main outcome for offshore wind was a simplification of the administrative procedure for the installation of offshore wind mills, i.e.: no more wind development zones; unique authorisation procedure (autorisation d'occupation du domaine public maritime) that includes the impact assessments. The law also transposes in French law the provisions of Directive 2009/72/EC as regards priority/guaranteed access into the grid for renewables in terms of transport infrastructures. Meanwhile, this new legislative framework needs to be tested at full scale. Experience from other countries show that administrative barriers still exist and can seriously slow down the realisation of the projects. The call will also need to comply with general public procurement rules.
References: Press brief from the Ministry of Ecology.
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