On 15 May France published the results of what was Europe’s first commercial scale floating offshore wind auction, with the winning bid awarded at €86/MWh – well below the €140/MWh ceiling price.

However, WindEurope CEO Giles Dickson warns governments against using the record-low French price as a new floating wind benchmark. Floating wind is a relatively young industry, so technical and commercial risks remain high. The Association points out that Europe currently has just 208 MW of floating wind in operation, spread mostly across four small wind farms. It says it is just ‘too early to tell what the price range for large scale floating wind is going to be in Europe’.

Dickson stresses that governments need to consider the specifics of the French auction when defining their auction budgets and ceiling prices: ‘Otherwise you might find yourself in a similar situation to the UK last year. The UK’s 2023 offshore wind auction had a low ceiling price because [it] made the wrong assumptions about costs – and nobody bid.’

The French tender was unique in many ways, according to WindEurope. First, project developers didn’t have to pay for the grid connection, neither for the export cables nor for the offshore substation. The French Transmission System Operator RTE will build and operate the grid connection and cover the costs. Second, the site conditions were extremely good with strong wind speeds and favourable water depths. Third, the contract for difference (CfD) offered is robustly indexed to inflation, taking into account different raw material prices. The actual price that’s paid when wind farm is built will be higher than €86/MWh, it says.

WindEurope is calling for France to change its auction design. In the South Brittany tender the price criterion made up 75% of the total assessment of the different bids; 5% was based on the robustness of the contractual and financial arrangements (the ‘ability to deliver’ the project). Other award criteria linked to social and territorial development as well as environmental protection and sustainability. The auction encouraged bidders to build their project with as few turbines as possible, pushing them to plan their projects with wind turbines of 20 MW and more – ‘turbines that don’t exist in the current market’, according to the Association. ‘This increases the project risk, as well as the risk of bidders having to go for non-European turbines, in turn threatening Europe’s energy security and undermining France’s Offshore Sector Deal targets’.

‘It is important that these changes come in as soon as possible,’ says WindEurope. France is currently running two more floating wind tenders of 250 MW each (Med I+II) and is to launch three more offshore wind auctions later this year. Two of these will be bottom-fixed auctions of 1 GW and 1.5 GW (AO7, AO8); the third will be a floating wind auction of 2.5 GW (AO9). Another auction of up to 8–10 GW of capacity (AO10) could also be prepared later this year.  

‘The South Brittany auction opens the door for big volumes of floating offshore wind to come. Europe could have 3 GW of floating offshore wind by 2030 if the relevant auctions are completed by the end of 2025,’ WindEurope concludes.

Final turbine installed at Yellow River, Ireland

Moving to recent wind project developments, SSE Renewables reports that it has installed the 29th and final turbine at its 101 MW Yellow River onshore wind farm at Rhode in County Offaly, Ireland. The project is scheduled to be fully operational in 2025.  

All the wind farm’s installed capacity has been contracted for 16.5 years as part of the Irish government’s third auction under the renewable electricity support scheme (RESS 3). Ireland has a target of at least 80% of its electricity to be supplied by renewables by 2030.

First wind turbine installed at Germany’s largest offshore wind farm

Meanwhile, the first of 83 Siemens Gamesa turbines has been installed at the Borkum Riffgrund 3 wind farm offshore Germany. With an installed capacity of 913 MW, it will be the largest offshore wind farm in Germany once in operation in 2025, according to Ørsted.  

The operator also claims Borkum Riffgrund 3 is the first offshore wind farm in the world to be awarded without subsidies. This has primarily been made possible by several long-term corporate power purchase agreements, which Ørsted has signed with industrial and technology customers including Amazon (350 MW), BASF (186 MW), Covestro (100 MW), Energie-Handels-Gesellschaft/REWE Group (100 MW), and Google (50 MW).  

Borkum Riffgrund 3 is also the first offshore wind farm to be built by Ørsted in Germany without an offshore substation. The new connection concept provides for a direct connection of the wind turbines via 66 kV connection cables to the DolWin epsilon offshore converter platform operated by the German transmission system operator, TenneT.

Borkum Riffgrund 3 is jointly owned by Ørsted and Nuveen Infrastructure. The companies recently delivered first power from the 253 MW Gode Wind 3 offshore wind farm, which is being constructed simultaneously with Borkum Riffgrund 3. Together, the two offshore wind farms will nearly double Ørsted’s total installed capacity in Germany, to 2.5 GW.

Final environmental authorisation for Portugal’s largest onshore wind farm

In other news, Iberdrola has obtained final environmental authorisation to build what is claimed will be Portugal’s largest onshore wind farm at Vila Real, in Braga, with a capacity of 274 MW.  

It will be the largest hybridisation project in Portugal, designed to make use of the grid injection point already built at the Tâmega hydroelectric complex, and the first to combine wind and hydro power.

The company will now apply for a production licence. It hopes to obtain all permits and begin construction in early 2025.

The Tâmega hydroelectric project is one of the largest hydroelectric projects undertaken in Europe in the last 25 years, according to Iberdrola. It consists of three power plants − the Alto Tâmega hydroelectric power plant, with an installed capacity of 160 MW; the Gouvães pumped storage power plant (880 MW); and the Daivões power plant (118 MW). The project is predicted to eliminate the emission of 1.2mn t/y of CO₂ and avoid the import of over 160,000 t/y of oil, reports Iberdrola.