Among the winners of the call for tenders is no French

The British Government laid the foundation of a huge investment in offshore wind energy by designating nine consortia responsible for developing new areas, most offshore, with an investment estimated at 100 billion pounds. Displayed is that wind turbines generate a quarter of the electricity needs of the Kingdom by 2020. Among the winners of the call for tenders is no French. EDF Energy, a subsidiary of EDF, was a candidate and was not accepted. The Group indicated that there would be other opportunities to increase its presence in the sector and indicated that its project of Teesside (a licence in the first round) would respect deadlines (2011).

"The State has set binding targets to selected consortia and will participate in the financing, Crown Estate, Treasury entity which is responsible for operating more than half of the coastal areas around Britain and who awarded the licences", explains Arnaud Bouillé, offshore wind activities Director at Ernst & Young renewable energy group. However, that the political will of the Government comes into being, he will now have the technology and the private sector to follow. The challenges that will meet this series of projects aimed at production of 32 GW to complete one quarter of the electricity needs of the country by 2020 and the extent is comparable to projects from the oil and gas in the North Sea from the 1970s and 1980s, many, according to experts. As the Germany, which has programmed 30 gigawatts of wind power for years to come, and the Denmark, Great Britain is enterprising in wind matters.

Lobbying of operators

Projects of the two previous powers of licensing offshore before the third round announced last Friday have already led to production of 700 megawatts, an amount which remains however limited since the total energy produced in the country is estimated at 78 gigawatts.

To reduce its gas emissions greenhouse, Britain wants to 15 of its energy from renewable sources here in ten years. But "Round 3" contains projects in more than 100 miles from the coast. The wind will be higher that the Montparnasse tower (a little over 200 metres) if there are 60 metres below sea level support. According to calculations of the "Financial Times", will be multiplied by more than 20 the rate of installation of these wind turbines. Finally, to justify such investment, operators will need guarantees on the resale price of electricity. There is intense lobbying of their part "in view of the difficulties, the horizon of 2020 is certainly optimistic, said Arnaud Bouillé.". Should rather rely on fifteen to twenty years to develop all Round 3 projects.

In view of the uncertainties, the consortia will certainly evolve. The big winners are in any case the British Centrica, owner of British Gas, Scottish and Southern Energy, German RWE, Spanish Iberdrola, which owns Scottish Power and Swedish Vattenfall. Apart from the latter, they are already present energy providers in the UK. The German engineering group Siemens, which manufactures wind turbines, is part of a successful consortium.

The Government expects these projects the creation of 70,000 jobs. The problem now is that manufacturers are foreign and produce abroad, especially since the departure of Danish Vestas, number one in the sector, of the Isle of Wight. There is no doubt that the State will be to allow a producer of wind turbines on its soil. Major groups such as General Electric, Mitsubishi and Areva French invest at this time to count on this market.