Major offshore wind developers were listed among the candidates selected to compete in France’s next offshore wind tender.

Spanish energy giant Iberdrola, French oil major TotalEnergies and German utility RWE are among the 12 candidates now expected to submit bids in the tender, which covers four offshore wind zones off France’s Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts. 

The zones include two deepwater zones in the Mediterranean — the Golfe de Fos 2 area 25km off Bouches-du-Rhône, and the Narbonnaise 2 zone 30km off the coast of Aude. Each of areas off France’s south coast could support an estimated 450-550MW of floating offshore wind capacity. 

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The other two areas in the AO9 tender are the Bretagne Sud 2 zone located 20km off Brittany’s southern coast in the Bay of Biscay, which could support 400-550MW of floating wind capacity, and the Oléron 2 zone, a large zone in the Atlantic Ocean off Oléron island that can support 1-1.2GW of either floating or fixed-bottom offshore wind capacity. 

Future projects at all four offshore wind zones are expected to come online between 2032 and 2034. 

Offshore wind specialist Ocean Winds also featured on the list alongside German utility EnBW, German developer BayWa and Belgian wind developer Parkwind. 

Groupings of UK renewables firm Octopus and offshore wind developer Skyborn; Belgian renewables developer Elicio, French counterpart QEnergy and Japanese utility Kansai Electric; renewables developer Oxan Energy and Ikea-owner Ingka Investments; and Italian oil major Eni’s renewables arm, Plenitude, and developer Qair have also been pre-qualified for the tender.

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