MAP. Where are the different offshore wind farms in service, under construction or planned in France?

The President of the Republic inaugurates the most powerful offshore wind farm in the country on Wednesday in Fécamp, while four others are currently under construction.

With its 71 wind turbines, the Fécamp wind farm (Seine-Maritime), inaugurated on Wednesday May 14 by Emmanuel Macron, is the most powerful park on the open sea in France. All of the wind turbines on the Normandy site are now in operation, providing enough electricity (a total power of 500 megawatts) to meet the needs of 770,000 inhabitants.

This is the second park of this type commissioned in the country after that of Saint-Nazaire, inaugurated in November 2022. These massive investments in the renewable energy sector were undertaken within the framework of the multi-annual programming law of energy (PPE), which also plans to open other offshore wind sites in the years to come.

The majority of parks in service or planned are located off the coast of the English Channel or in the Atlantic Ocean. These areas concentrate natural characteristics (wind, swell or the depth of the seabed) but also electricity networks and industries conducive to the development of this type of offshore wind farm.

In addition to Fécamp and Saint-Nazaire, which are fully operational, the Faraman-Port-Saint-Louis-du-Rhône park is also in service, but it is a pilot site, which produces little electricity. Two other pilot projects are also planned in the Mediterranean (as you can see on the map below) to test the efficiency of floating wind turbines: thanks to a float system, the wind turbine can be installed further from the coast, where the seabed is deeper and the winds more powerful.

Four other offshore sites are also under construction: the wind farms of Dieppe Le Tréport (Seine-Maritime), Courseulles-sur-mer (Calvados), that of the islands of Yeu and Noirmoitier (Vendée) and that of Saint-Brieuc , which will be the next to be completed, within a few weeks (also for a power of around 500 MW). Some of the wind turbines in this park already produce electricity. Seven other projects still remain under study (three in the Channel, three in the Atlantic and one in the Mediterranean, which provides for two separate parks).

Offshore wind power currently constitutes only a small part of the French energy mix. According to RTE, the electricity transmission network manager, 1.9 terawatt hours were produced using this technology in 2023, or barely 3.8% of the total electricity produced in France. But ultimately, these infrastructures must contribute to the objective of “zero net emissions” that France has committed to achieving by 2050. In 2030, renewables will therefore have to account for 40% of our energy mix. According to Ademe, this figure must be increased to at least 70% for France to achieve carbon neutrality.