France to launch EUR 10bn tender for wind turbines
(PARIS) - The French government will next month launch a tender for contracts totalling 10 billion euros (12.6 billion dollars) to build 600 offshore wind turbines around the French coast, officials said Tuesday.
The aim is to create production capacity of 3,000 megawatts of electricity generated from 10 different sites, officials at the ecology and energy ministry said.
At the current cost of 3.5 million euros to build each megawatt capacity, "that represents an investment programme of 10 billion euros," a ministry official said.
The first wind turbines resulting from this tender are not due to be up and running before 2015.
By 2020 the government says it hopes for wind turbines with a production capacity of 6,000 megawatts.
France currently produces only a tiny amount of its electricity with wind turbines.
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