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Port of Brest confirmed as a major hub for floating wind construction
26/8/2026
News
The French port of Brest is set to become a leading centre for building floating wind turbines after operator BrestPort secured €58mn of state funding to expand the site as part of France's drive to reach 45GW of offshore wind generation by 2050.
Brittany is already an important centre for wind developments along France’s Atlantic coast and in the Celtic Sea, the region hosting around 50% of the country’s offshore wind R&D. Some €250mn has been invested to date in the InFloW initiative, centred on the development of an offshore renewable energies (ORE) terminal at the port of Brest, capable of accommodating both fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind projects.
Selected under France’s 2030 national investment plan, the latest InFloW funding will allow the port of Brest to bring the entire floating wind industrial value chain onto a single site. The terminal will handle the manufacture and storage of very large components, the integration of turbines and complex launch operations. The assembly hub is expected to generate around 4,000 jobs and prevent the emission of 850,000 tCO2 by 2050.
According to BrestPort, the port’s operating company, the ambition is to make Brest a ‘benchmark site’ able to assemble 20–30 floating wind turbines per year – and, for some projects, to integrate next-generations turbines with capacities of up to 25MW.
Around 100 nautical miles to the south, the port of Lorient forms the second pillar of Brittany’s longer-term wind strategy. Positioned close to future wind farms planned off southern Brittany – including Pennavel, France’s first commercial-scale (250MW) floating offshore wind farm, due onstream in 2030/2031 – Lorient will serve as a strategic base for offshore wind services, mooring logistics and maintenance.
The Britanny region is also advancing a broader range of offshore renewable energy power projects. These include tidal stream schemes at the Paimpol-Bréhat test site, France’s first grid-connected tidal stream turbine off the coast of Ouessant, and potential commercial farms totalling around 500MW at Fromveur and Raz de Sein. Wave energy activity spans the Ifremer test site at Sainte-Anne du Portzic, a pilot site at the port of Roscoff and a further high-potential location currently undergoing qualification.
See below for a video showcasing the future activities of the BrestPort ORE terminal.
