496 MW French Offshore Wind Farm Enters Construction Stage - Offshore WIND
496 MW French Offshore Wind Farm Enters Construction Stage | Offshore Wind
496 MW French Offshore Wind Farm Enters Construction Stage
The Eoliennes en Mer des îles d’Yeu et de Noirmoutier (EMYN) consortium, comprising Ocean Winds, Sumitomo Corporation, Banque des Territoires and Vendée Energie, has reached the final investment decision for the Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier offshore wind farm in France and thus moved the project into the construction stage.
The first offshore operations will take place this summer before the construction work begins next spring with the installation of the monopile foundations, the offshore substation and the first subsea cables. The wind turbines will be installed in 2025 and the offshore wind farm is expected to be commissioned in the second half of the same year.
The 496 MW Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier represents an investment of around EUR 2.5 billion.
The consortium says the project involves robust international public and private financing, led by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and a syndicate of 16 banks: 6 French banks, 4 Japanese banks, 2 British banks, 2 Spanish banks, 1 German bank and 1 Dutch bank.
The financing is provided through shareholders-backed financing and non-recourse debt, raised with the support of Société Générale, who acted as the financial advisor to the project.
Located off the coast of Vendée, 11.6 kilometres from the island of Yeu and 16.5 kilometres from Noirmoutier, the offshore wind farm will feature 62 Siemens Gamesa 8 MW wind turbines, which the OEM will produce in its Le Havre facility.
The monopiles will be produced by China-based Dajin Heavy Industry, while Eiffage will deliver all 62 transition pieces, with Sif supplying the primary steel and Smulders manufacturing the secondary steel.
The Îles d’Yeu and Noirmoutier offshore substation will be built by Chantiers de l’Atlantique in Saint-Nazaire. Spain’s Navantia will build the substation’s jacket foundation and the associated piles.
French transmission system operator is in charge of connecting the wind farm from its substation to the grid on land, while Louis Dreyfus TravOcean will install the inter-array cables.
DEME and Jan de Nul have been contracted for the transport and installation of the foundations, wind turbines, and the substation.
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Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.