Rennes Court Dismisses Nass & Wind, Alstom’s St-Brieuc Appeals

On 16 February, the Administrative Court in Rennes dismissed complaints filed by Nass & Wind and Alstom Wind France, requesting a cancellation of the French government’s authorisation given to Ailes Marines for modification of the Saint Brieuc project and Prefect of Côtes-d’Armor’s decision to allow for one more year to submit applications for the authorisation.

Namely, the two companies won three out of the four awarded sites at the French tender in 2012, as part of a consortium also comprising EDF EN, wpd and DONG Energy, which won the rights to develop the Saint-Nazaire, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fécamp projects. The fourth site – Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d’Armor) – was awarded to Ailes Marines, a consortium between Iberdrola, Eole-Res and Caisse des Dépôts.

Nass & Wind and Alstom Wind France (now GE Renewable Energy) each submitted a request for an annulment of the government’s permission to Ailes Marines to modify the project in order to use 8MW instead of 5MW wind turbines and an additional year granted by the Prefect of Côtes-d’Armor, which the consortium used to submit the final applications for authorisation.

Scrapping the initial plan to install a hundred 5MW wind turbines as the offshore wind technologically progressed, Ailes Marines decided to go with the new project layout in June 2014 and use 62 wind turbines of the 8MW class, announced in 2013 and offered by Adwen, an offshore wind joint venture set up between Areva and Gamesa, now fully owned by Gamesa.

When contacted by Offshore WIND, a spokesperson from Iberdrola said the company is studying the court’s decision and that it does not have any comments on the matter.

A spokesperson from GE – contacted regarding the appeal made by former Alstom Wind France – said: “We are in the process of studying Rennes Administrative Court’s decision. A determination on the next steps will be made in due time following consultation with our counsels.”

Meanwhile, Ailes Marines has deployed two LiDARs at the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm site to gather valuable data for the project. The construction is expected to start in 2018 and the wind farm is scheduled to be operational in 2020.

Offshore WIND Staff

Updated with a statement from GE.

Corrected to state that Nass & Wind and Alstom Wind France’s complaints were made against French government’s permission to modify the project layout and Prefect of Côtes-d’Armor allowing for an additional year for filing of applications, and not the tender award itself.