The consortium led by French utility EDF that was revealed as the winner of the roughly-600MW Dunkirk offshore wind zone in northern France won with a bid of €44/MWh, documents from French energy regulator commission de régulation de l'énergie (CRE) show.
The French government and the companies involved – EDF, Enbridge and Innogy – so far have only talked about the winning bid being “below €50/MWh”.
EDF and Innogy had no comment Friday when contacted by Recharge.
France’s government last week was so impressed by the low winning price that energy minister François de Rugy confirmed that the country plans to raise its offshore wind tender ambition to 1GW per year, up from around 700MW currently envisaged to be auctioned off.
The prices at France’s first two rounds of offshore wind tenders in 2012 and 2014 were around a much higher level of €200/MWh, leading to a renegotiation with the government that ended in revised rates being pushed down to around €150/MWh.
De Rugy has already said additional volumes will be included at the launch of an up-to 1GW offshore wind zone off Normandy, and the up-to 1GW Oleron zone.
