Skip to main content

Floating wind scaling up – A paper of Wind Europe

A paper of November 2021 of the association Wind Europe has been published with the aim of providing advice to the European institutions and National Governments, in order to enable the scaling up of floating offshore wind farms toward competitiveness.

The association considers that if sufficient capacity is installed, bottom-fixed and floating technologies would converge to a similar range of prices. The paper mentions a price between €53-76/MWh by 2030 for floating wind and a converging price of €30/MWh to €50/MWh for both technologies by 2040, depending on site conditions.

As regards the European institutions, the paper insists on five priorities that may be summarized in three main categories:

  • soft law: reviewing and monitoring the new emissions reduction and renewable targets of the Member States’ National Energy and Climate Plans;
  • State aids: the reduction of financing costs through existing institutions such as the European Investment Bank that may act as guarantor for large projects; the support of the national State aids to port infrastructure;
  • grid infrastructure: the coordination of Member States’ offshore grid infrastructure; the development of floating grid connections, in particular floating offshore substations.

As regards the National Governments, nine recommendations are provided by Wind Europe, which we may comment as follows for France:

  • maritime planning (Scotland and UK are quoted as model): heavy work has been implemented in France on this matter during the past few years, through the development of shoreline strategic documents (“documents stratégiques de façade”); this exercise is nevertheless burdened by the slowness of this planification process compared to the evolution of the sea users’ often contradictory expectations and needs, mainly the fisheries, the tourism sector and the energy industry;
  • the participation of relevant stakeholders at an early stage (France is quoted): the National Public Debate Commission (“Commission nationale du débat public”) is indeed an early stage public participation process, but this is also a double-edge sword for the offshore wind industry; the process itself may create frustrations for stakeholders opposed to the project, and it may not be fully suited for projects which development may take up to – or in some cases more than – ten years in France;
  • co-use of auctioned areas (France is quoted): up to now, this is done on a case-by-case basis for floating projects, between the developers and the interested stakeholders, although the State authorities are also involved in the planification of maritime navigation and usages, as demonstrated in the ongoing development of the main fixed-bottom projects in France;
  • administrative simplification (the Netherlands are quoted): the paper mentions single permit, as well as the reduction of entry barriers to bidders; heavy work has been done in France on this topic during the past few years, with a single environmental permit being implemented – or a single EEZ permit, beyond the territorial waters – although some other specific authorisations and agreements with State-entities must still be obtained and signed separately; the French State has also improved the access to data and now provides preliminary studies to bidders, in order to increase the competitiveness of its auctions; 
  • technology-specific auctions: for the offshore wind industry – weather bottom-fixed or floating – France has always provided technology-specific – and site-specific – auctions;
  • clear auction schedules (France is quoted): the Energy Multiannual Programming (“programmation pluriannuelle de l’énergie”) indeed provides for a clear auction schedule, although it seems rather ambitious compared to the rhythm of the past and actual auctions launched for bottom-fixed wind;
  • auctions allocating remuneration enabling to stabilize revenues (the UK is quoted): although the first six French bottom-fixed projects are under feed-in-tariffs, the developers of the following projects – whether already granted or subject to ongoing auctions – will sign contracts for difference;
  • clarity of the responsibility for planning, development, and ownership of the grid connection (the UK and Ireland are quoted): in France, the first bottom-fixed projects provided for the development and ownership of the offshore substation by the developer, but this has changed and the entire transmission infrastructure is developed and owned by the national TSO, RTE, while the inter-array cables are the developer’s responsibility; the planning of the offshore transmission system infrastructure is subject to coordination between the TSO and the State;
  • facilitating industrialization of the supply chain, ports, and other mass-production infrastructure: this is mainly done in France through State aids to the port infrastructure, as well as through the developers themselves, the bidders being encouraged to develop local partnerships with contractors and subcontractors.

Although the French legal framework is not perfect yet for the development of floating wind – if perfection is even possible – heavy progress has thus been made during the past years, mainly thanks to the experience resulting from the first bottom-fixed projects. Those have indeed been heavily slowed down by long litigations and complex administrative processes, leading to substantial changes of the legal framework to simplify these processes and reduce the length of legal proceedings.

<
Back to articles

MAKE AN APPOINTMENT AT THE FIRM

Do you need legal advice?

>
Click here