Shell, the Bank of Territories and the Chinese CGN judged that the economic viability of the Breton “pilot” was not guaranteed.
by Jean-Michel Bezat
There will be no floating wind turbines off Groix and Belle-ile-en-Mer (Morbihan). The Anglo-Nord-Nérlandais oil tanker Shell, one of the three members of the consortium responsible for funding, building and exploiting the “pilot farm” with the Territorial Bank (Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations) and China General Nuclear Power Corporation, A Announced, Tuesday, November 15, the withdrawal of the project, confirming information published on the same day on the site of Echos .
This project was “confronted with several technical, commercial and financial challenges (…) in a context of constantly increasing costs and very strong constraints in terms of inflation and supply chain”, according to the press release Shell. The sharp increase in prices of raw materials and the outbreak of energy was right for the “economic viability” of the Groix-Belle-Ile park.
After call for tenders, the three wind turbines’ project was awarded in 2016 at an estimated cost of 300 million euros. Shell entered it in 2019, after the takeover in Veolia of the French company Eolfi, developer of the “farm”. But it was the victim of cascading defections. That of the American General Electric, supposed to provide wind turbines (masts, turbines and blades), in 2019. It was replaced by the Nippo-Danois Mhi Vestas Offshore Wind, which also renounced. In charge of the floating platform, Naval Group announced, in early 2021, the cessation of its activity in renewable marine energies, assigned to Italian Saipem, to refocus on the construction of military ships.
With this failure, the Chinese CGN withdraws a little more from Europe, after the decision of the British authorities to no longer entrust it with the construction and exploitation of nuclear power plants in the United Kingdom. On the other hand, Shell maintains its strategy for developing renewables to offer other energy sources than hydrocarbons, such as all European oil companies. He contributes to calls for tenders on the floating wind power in the south of Brittany (a park of 250 megawatts) and in the Mediterranean (two parks of 250 MW each), whose results are expected in 2023.
A very daring bet
The Ministry of Ecological Transition “regrets the abandonment of the project, which is the consequence in particular of the cessation of production by Vestas of the turbines to feed the park”. He nevertheless recalls that three other pilot farms will be put into service in the next two years in the Mediterranean, by EDF renewable, Engie and Totalenergies. The ministry considers that “France has put itself in walking order very early [2016] to structure a strong sector of floating wind turbines”, in particular because it has a very good wind regime.
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