The second offshore wind projects on tender are a 500MW wind farm near Le Tréport, northern France, and 500MW near the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier, western France.
The GDF-led consortium including Spanish renewable company EDP Renewables, French developer Neoen Marine and French manufacturer Areva won the second round of offshore tender.
After the setback in the first bid, GDF Suez established a 50:50 joint venture with EDP Renewables for the second tender.
The projects, which are to be completed by 2020, will include Areva's 8MW turbines.
The two projects are expected to attract around EUR 3.5bn (EUR 3.5m per MW) of investment and create 6,000 direct and indirect jobs in manufacturing and installation.
A second bidding consortium of EDF Energies Nouvelles, WPD and Alstom was also competing for the tender.
In the first offshore tender, tenders for four offshore wind sites, all located on France's north coast, with a total capacity of 1.9GW, were awarded to two consortiums led by French utility EDF, and Spanish utility Iberdrola.
According to the French government, the aim is to install 6GW of marine renewable energy by 2020, comprising offshore wind and tidal power.
Photo Source: Offshore Wind
