EDF Energies Nouvelles and wpd offshore Submit Bids for Two New Projects alongside Alstom

Regulatory News:

The European consortium comprising EDF Energies Nouvelles and company, wpd offshore, have announced that they have submitted two bids for the Tréport and Ile d’ Yeu/Ile de Noirmoutier projects. These two projects fall within the framework of the second call for tenders for French offshore wind energy projects, representing total new capacity of 1,000 MW to be installed by 2023. This reinforces the ambitious plan already taking place with Alstom (Paris:ALO) , partner for the turbines.

An additional 1,000 MW of offshore wind energy for France

In March 2013, the French government launched a call for tenders for the construction and operation of two large-scale offshore wind farms:

1. One site located off Tréport in the Haute Normandie region;
2. One site between the Ile d’ Yeu and Ile de Noirmoutier in the Pays de la Loire region.

Each site offers capacity of 480-500 MW to be brought into service between 2021 and 2023.

This national call for tenders for 1,000 MW is in addition to the first call for tenders for 2,500 MW launched in 2011, which comprised five wind energy projects off the French coast (the Channel and the Atlantic). Three of the four lots awarded by the Government were won by the consortium headed by EDF Energies Nouvelles: Fécamp (498 MW), Courseulles-sur-Mer (450 MW) and Saint-Nazaire (480 MW). These projects are due to come into service starting from 2018.

Successful collaboration set to continue

The European consortium made up of EDF Energies Nouvelles and wpd offshore with Alstom as exclusive supplier for the turbines represents a strong alliance, demonstrated by the many years of collaboration in the three projects won together during the first call for tenders.
The quality of propositions made and the accuracy of the studies conducted at the time of the first call for tenders were verified at the end of the risk assessment period. The three project companies created for the first call for tenders each confirmed on 23 October, that the projects would continue in accordance with the initial pricing offer, technical options and timetable presented in the applications made in 2012.
The extension of this partnership for the second call for tenders will enable the different parties involved to capitalise on the operating and working methods established over the last two or more years, as well as their shared vision.
On November, 29th 2013, the consortium filed two solid, tailored and realistic offers based on the technical and environmental studies conducted over several years by renowned research engineering offices.
The consortium also benefits from the enhanced expertise of its partners.
Over the last few years, EDF Energies Nouvelles has become French market leader in offshore wind energy. It recently consolidated this position with the 325 MW brought into service in Belgium, 62 MW in the United Kingdom and 2,500 MW under development, including 1,500 MW in France and 1,000 MW in the United Kingdom.

In Germany, wpd offshore has developed the first offshore wind farm in Baltic sea (launched in 2011) and has secured the financing of the project Butendiek (80 wind turbines in North Sea and 1.3 bn ivestment), which construction will begin springtime 2014 under wpd’s responsibility.
Eight offshore projects in Europe are fully permitted for a total power output of 2.5 GW. In France, wpd offshore has identified the sites of Fécamp, Courseulles-sur-Mer and the area located between Yeu and Noirmoutier islands. These projects have been defined in close cooperation with the local stakeholders. Technical and environmental studies performed, and consultation’s meetings have been decisive to define the projects.

Partners ready to build up French industry

The submission of bids for these two additional projects confirms the consortium’s aim - with Alstom as manufacturer of wind turbines - to build up and consolidate an ambitious industrial plan ensuring a long-term future for Alstom’s wind offshore plants. This new capacity will provide opportunities in the medium term for the plants securing an additional activity of approximately one year per wind farm, and give Alstom the visibility to export its activities.

The implementation of the industrial plan is expected to create 5,000 jobs including 1,000 direct jobs. As part of the plan, Alstom has begun building four plants to manufacture various key components of the wind turbines. The two Saint-Nazaire plants which will produce the nacelles and the generators have been under construction since spring 2013 and are due to be completed in late 2014. Building permit application for the blades and tower factories in Cherbourg will be soon submitted.

When you add construction and operation/maintenance activities, a total of .around 8,500 direct and indirect jobs will be created across the five French projects, thus creating an industrial cluster dedicated to offshore wind. As part of this effort, Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles have carried out important upstream work, reinforcing discussions with local partners such as Neopolia and Vendée Expansion in order to identify and qualify offshore industry subcontractors.

At the same time, Alstom completed the offshore installation of its new-generation offshore wind turbine, the 6-MW Haliade™ 150, one of the largest offshore wind turbine on the market off Ostend harbour at the Belwind site in Belgium. This is one of the most efficient offshore wind turbine since its yield is 15% better than existing offshore turbines. Following successful IEC¹ power performance measurement certification (power curve²), obtained in May 2013 on the first Haliade 150 commissioned at Le Carnet site in France, the machine is expected to secure its final certification during the first half of 2014. The offshore installation will help confirm how the machine behaves within the offshore environment for which it was specifically designed and developed.

About EDF Energies Nouvelles

Operating in Europe and North America, EDF Energies Nouvelles is a market leader in green electricity production, with a portfolio of 6,358 MW of gross installed capacity. With a development focused on wind and solar photovoltaic energy, the Company recently entered new promising markets: Israel, Morocco, South Africa and Poland, and is expanding its business in offshore wind energy. The Company is also present in other segments of the renewable energy market: marine energy, biogas, biomass and small hydro as well as in distributed energies. EDF EN manages renewable energy projects’ development and construction as well as operation and maintenance for its own account and for third parties. EDF Energies Nouvelles is a subsidiary of the EDF Group and its renewable energy arm.
For more information, please visit: www.edf-energies-nouvelles.com.

About wpd

wpd is a developer and operator of wind farms with activities in 20 countries in Europe and overseas. So far, wind farms with some 1,500 turbines and a total output of 2.5 GW have been implemented by wpd group and international projects with a further 6.7 GW onshore are under development. With a pipeline of 10 GW, wpd is among Europe’s leading developers for offshore wind farms. One of the first commercial offshore wind farms, Baltic 1, has been developed by wpd and launched in 2011. wpd is developing offshore projects in Germany, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, France and Italy.
wpd offshore
100 % affiliate of the wpd group, Bremen Worldwide, one of the leading developers of offshore wind farms with a pipeline of 18 projects (totaling 10 GW) and activities in 6 countries (Germany, France, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Denmark)

• The value chain covers project development, construction as well as operational management
• So far, 8 projects in Germany, Sweden and Finland have been successfully developed until final consent
• Procurement for 3 projects with a total investment volume of more than 2.5 billion Euros
• Construction management for 2 offshore wind projects (including Baltic 1, Germany’s first commercial offshore wind farm)
• Developer of and shareholder in 2 of the 4 projects that have been tendered in France so far.
  www.wpd-offshore.fr

About Alstom

Alstom is a global leader in the world of power generation, power transmission and rail infrastructure and sets the benchmark for innovative and environmentally friendly technologies. Alstom builds the fastest train and the highest capacity automated metro in the world, provides turnkey integrated power plant solutions and associated services for a wide variety of energy sources, including hydro, nuclear, gas, coal and wind, and it offers a wide range of solutions for power transmission, with a focus on smart grids. The Group employs 93,000 people in around 100 countries. It had sales of over €20 billion and booked close to €24 billion in orders in 2012/13. www.alstom.com

¹ IEC: International Electrotechnical Commission
² Power curve: Determines the turbine’s electricity production as a function of the average wind speed