The European Commission gave the green light to French plans on supporting four demonstration floating wind farms for producing electricity. The “Groix Belle Ile”project will be located in the Atlantic Ocean, while the other three projects(‘Golf du Lion’, ‘Eolmed’, and ‘Provence Grand Large’) will be located in the Mediterranean Sea.
Mainly, the demonstration floating wind farms will consist of 3 to 4 turbines and each one will have a total installed capacity of 24 megawatt.
The turbines will be installed in the sea on floaters and will be interconnected with each other and connected to land through an underwater cable.
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Each of the four wind turbines will use a different combination of turbine, floater and cables.
Specifically, the aim is to trial these different technological solutions, with the long-term goal to test this technology before deploying it on a larger scale.
The wind farms will have operating and investment aid. Part of the investment aid will be paid in the form of repayable advances, as well.
After assessing the Commission’s Guidelines on State Aid for Environmental Protection and Energy, they resulted to:
- The French projects will promote the growth of a new kind of offshore wind energy and the potential growth of a novel renewable energy technology.
- The level of aid granted to the four projects is proportionate and will avoid overcompensation for the beneficiaries of the public support, in line with the requirements of the Guidelines.
The Commission resulted that the four projects will promote the use of electricity generated from renewable sources and will help France meet its climate targets, without unduly distorting competition.
