600 wind turbines for NW coastline

OFFSHORE wind farms with 600 turbines are to be built on five sites between Saint-Nazaire and Dieppe/Le Tréport in a €10 billion project to be announced by President Sarkozy.

The 3,000MW total capacity of the new project is the equivalent of two nuclear power stations.

France has set itself the goal of producing 23 per cent of its power needs from renewable resources by 2020, with 6,000MW from wind power. The new offshore wind farms should start generating power in 2015.

Ecology minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet’s department has welcomed the news, saying it has given new life to environmental projects. She had won an internal cabinet battle with industry minister Eric Besson, who had wanted the project scaled back to 2,000MW.

Now companies are being asked to tender for the giant contract, with the average cost of each installation being €3.5m per megawatt, twice the cost of land-based wind turbines.

GDF Suez subsidiary Compagnie du Vent already has plans in place for 141 5MW turbines 14km off the coast at Le Tréport; that would be enough to meet the electricity needs of 990,000 people.

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Photo: Kim Hansen