France and Germany outline a path to expand offshore wind capacity by 2030.
At the launch of the 480MW Saint-Nazaire wind farm, French environment minister Francois de Rugy, outlined how France will grow new offshore wind by 1GW a year (10GW by 2028). The plans include three 250MW floating offshore wind farms and a fixed-bottom development up to 1GW near the island of Oleron.
The new 10GW target almost doubles France’s previous target of 5.5GW set in 2018.
In Berlin, German Parliamentary Secretary of State, Thomas Bareiß, proposed increasing wind energy targets from 15GW to 20GW.
The wind sector has advocated this increase as a pre-requisite for Germany to meet the goal of 65% renewables by 2030, the IPCC watermark for curtailing carbon emissions. In 2017, 36.2% of Germany’s electricity consumption came from renewables and wind currently contributes 17%m enough to power 80% of homes.
A lot must happen to revitalise the German wind sector. The next round of tenders is two years away and there could be a four-year lag until commissioning.
Sources and further reading:
Germany seeks to jolt its stalled wind industry with new offshore plan (Euractive)
France maps 10GW offshore wind vision (Renews)
