The Iberdrola group and AXA IM Alts have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate in the deployment of offshore wind energy in France. Under this agreement, AXA IM Alts will participate as a minority shareholder in the development of a 1,000-turbine farm in Normandy, should Iberdrola be awarded the project in the auction in which it has already been shortlisted.
Bids for this tender, denominated AO4, will be submitted on November 10, and the award is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. The future site will be located more than 30 kilometers off the coast of Normandy, in an area with very favorable wind and seabed conditions for this technology.
In addition to this tender, Iberdrola has also been pre-qualified for the development of three other offshore wind energy projects, each with a capacity of 250 MW. Two of them are in the Gulf of León, in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, and are expected to be awarded in the fall of 2023 and scheduled for commissioning in 2030.
The third project the company is bidding for is France’s first floating offshore wind farm, to be built some 20 kilometers off Pointe des Poulains, a peninsula at the northwestern tip of Belle-Île in Brittany. The French government plans to designate the winner of the tender next spring, so that it can start operating in 2030.
Iberdrola is currently completing the Saint-Brieuc wind farm, which will be the group’s first large offshore wind farm in France. With almost 500 MW of capacity, it will generate enough clean energy to meet the electricity consumption of 835,000 people, once it enters into operation in 2023. Located some 16 kilometers from the coast, it will cover an area of 75 square kilometers.
