Each set will include around twenty wind turbines. Jean Castex launched two calls for tenders on Monday March 14 to build two floating wind farms in the Mediterranean Sea by 2030, which could supply electricity to one million people.
A park will be located about twenty kilometers off Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude), where the Prime Minister went on Monday with Barbara Pompili, Minister for Ecological Transition. Another should also see the light of day about twenty kilometers from Fos-sur-Mer (Bouches-du-Rhône), “subject to the results of the latest environmental studies”said the Prime Minister.
By 2050, 50 offshore wind farms
According to these calls for tenders, which will be awarded in 2023, each set will include around twenty wind turbines for a production of 250 megawatts (MW) each. And “each park can be extended in a second step to reach 750 megawatts and cover 10% of the consumption of the Occitanie and PACA regions”added Jean Castex.
Accusing in the offshore wind energy a certain delay compared to its neighbors, France wants to accelerate, with the objective of “build 50 offshore wind farms by 2050”, or 40 gigawatts (GW) of total capacity, recalled the head of government. These parks should represent “20% of electricity consumption in France”.
Floating technology, still immature, has never been used for a commercial fleet in France. But a first call for tenders has already been launched in 2021 for a park in Brittany.