Nicolas Sarkozy has confirmed the launch of a call for offers of 3,000 megawatts for offshore wind in the second quarter of 2011. This project will require an investment of around 10 billion euros. The Head of State said that the tender had been delayed so that “the industrial sector is ready. ” A budget [...]

Given the power of German industry and the promises of the British market, France must play the innovation card. Offshore will soon be the main source of the European Wind Power. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), estimates that the annual installed onshore wind capacity should begin to decline in 2020 to be overtaken by the installed capacity at [...]

The wind turbine market is blooming in the North Sea and the projects are multiplying, but still not in France. Professionals in the offshore wind should be fixed “before Christmas”, according to the Environment Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, referring to the tender for 3,000 MW all along the French coast. Despite a favourable natural environment – [...]

On Tuesday, the operators of Germany’s first offshore wind farm urged the German government to increase incentives to expand the generation of renewable power at sea. Utilities Eon, EWE and Vattenfall made a statement calling on Berlin to improve the financial and regulatory framework so that more offshore wind farms can be launched in Germany. [...]

Liverpool is set to benefit from a £15bn investment in offshore wind power. A report by the global consulting engineers Arup has revealed there are big opportunities for jobs in the next phase of development which will see a wind farm twice the size of the Isle of Man built in the Irish Sea. The [...]

The Swedish minister of defense has signed an agreement with Hanöbukten Offshore AB, which will allow for the construction of two new offshore wind parks in Kristianstad and Sölverborg. Following this agreement, the only wind installations still restricted by the Swedish defense department are those around military airports. Find more information (in Swedish) at http://bit.ly/dkCjTH

According to scientists of the Ruhr University in Bochum, “Alpha Ventus”, Germany’s first offshore wind park launched in 2009, has already achieved a positive ecological balance. Within just about one year, the scientists say, the installation had already produced more energy than what was used for its construction and which will be needed for its [...]

The French government is about to launch a national invitation to tender for the building of 600 offshore wind turbines around the French coast. Contracts will reach a total amount of €10 billion (US$ 12.6 billion).  The aim is to create production capacity of 3,000 megawatts of electricity generated from 10 different sites. Northern Brittany, [...]

The first round of grants since the budget for developing offshore wind technology are to be announced today by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Secretary of state Chris Huhne will announce the grants – worth a total of £10m – in a speech at the launch of the International Energy Agency’s Energy Technology [...]