By America Hernandez
(Reuters) -A consortium led by TotalEnergies has won a tender to develop and build a 1.5-gigawatt wind farm off the coast of Normandy, marking France’s largest such project to date.
The deal, a last-minute award by the outgoing government that collapsed this month before publishing crucial legislation to launch future energy tenders, strengthens TotalEnergies’ renewable energy portfolio in France, a market the company has previously deemed less competitive due to slow permitting processes compared to Britain and Germany.
It also allows France, which lags behind European Union renewable energy targets, to inch towards its goal for offshore wind capacity of 45 gigawatts by 2050, up from the current 1.5 GW. Progress has been hampered by the absence of a revised energy planning law (PPE) to guide future tenders.
GERMANY’S RWE TO LEAVE THE CONSORTIUM
“TotalEnergies is proud to be French and invest in France, but in effect a new PPE is necessary to reassure industry players and launch new tenders,” Isabelle Patrier, head of TotalEnergies France, told journalists at a press briefing on Wednesday.
Separately, Germany’s RWE said it had decided to leave the consortium, which will require regulatory approval.
“RWE will not pursue further development of the project. (This) is the result of a comprehensive review of this project in relation to our other project portfolio,” a spokesperson said via email.
The offshore wind award is Total’s first in France, where most previous tenders have gone to state-owned EDF or partially state-owned Engie.
Of Total’s 25 GW of gross renewable capacity, just 2 GW are in France, although that will rise to 4 GW by 2030.
The project represents an investment of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) excluding grid connection costs, Total said, with the tariff set by the state at 66 euros per megawatt-hour, a sharp increase from previous tenders, which Total said reflected a 50% rise in construction costs.
The wind farm would produce six terawatt-hours of electricity annually, supplying the equivalent of one million households, the French government said separately.
Total said it expected to make a final investment decision in early 2029, with power production to begin in 2033.
Patrier said Total was able to build the project alone, but would seek a new partner.
“We don’t imagine not being able to find a new partner if RWE leaves, because we know certain developers are already interested in the project,” she said.
($1 = 0.8510 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk, America Hernandez in Paris, Chris Steitz in Berlin. Editing by Bernadette Baum, Louise Heavens and Mark Potter)
