France Pioneers Wind Power
President Sarkozy of France has announced the first round of bidding for the construction of five 3,000 MW offshore wind farms, or 600 wind turbines, at a total cost of €10 billion. The wind farms, which are expected to be in action by 2015, will be located in north-west France. A subsequent tender is planned for another 3,000 MW.
The offshore wind farm project aims to make France one of the most advanced European countries in this field, and will increase the percentage of electricity from renewable sources used in France by 2%, or the equivalent of three small nuclear power stations. A target of 23% overall has been fixed for 2020.
French firms, Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles, have announced that they are going to respond jointly to the tender call. Philippe Cochet, senior vice-president of Alstom Hydro & Wind, said in a statement; “We have gained experience in wind energy and possess the offshore technology that will enable cost-effective electricity generation.” According to Mr Sarkozy, the project will create around 10,000 jobs.
Candidates will be shortlisted at the beginning of 2012, by the French Energy Regulation Commission (CRE).
Foreign Investors
An Ernst & Young study on how to attract investors to green energy development across Europe has just been published, and recommendeds several measures:
- Preliminary infrastructure development
- Guarantees of economic viability
- A concentration on solar and wind power
France has already made headway with all three of the recommendations and is now attracting serious FDI for green energy. Existing wind power projects in France include two wind farms owned by Canadian company, Boralex. and two farms financed by German companies, Enercon and Enertrag. This will be Enercon’s third wind farm investment in France.
NTN (Japanese), and Vestas (Danish), are both setting up turbine assembly sites in France, while Natural Power (British) - who provide development and construction services for wind farms - has just established its second office in France.
Progressive Renewable Energy Policies & Financial Incentives
While France will rely on wind power to provide a large share of its renewable energy, the country is also developing projects for other types of green electricity production and encouraging investment in them.
A major driver behind the growth of solar energy in France are generous tax credits of 50% towards the cost of buying solar panels. Consequently, solar power production increased from 10.7MWp in 2000, to 331MWp in 2009 and then rapidly to 510.9MW in the first half of 2010.
Similarly, innovation in business (including green energy) benefits from tax credits covering up to 40% of R&D costs. Credits for expenditure on R&D carried out in conjunction with public sector laboratories are doubled.
Government Investments
France actively committed itself to developing a competitive and sustainable economy in 2007, and subsequently invested €5.1 billion to promote ‘green growth’.
The funds were used to complete research projects relating to energy and renewable energies and to develop new ‘eco-technology’ innovation clusters. An further €1 billion was released to keep France at the leading edge of innovation, and this is in addition to the €7 billion in government funding allocated every single year until 2020, as part of France’s ‘New Green Deal’.
According to a report by HSBC, this plan placed France ahead of Germany (which is the second-leading country in the EU in terms of green stimulus plans) and the UK.
Wind Power Pioneer
With France’s support for R&D and policies on increasing its percentage of renewable energy, the country is now a global leader in the green energy sector, as shown by the confidence of foreign investors. The announcement of the new wind farms is further proof – on an international scale – of France’s continuing commitment to increasing renewable energy production, and its aim to establish itself as a wind power pioneer.
