In 2021

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

reached a total of 18,676 megawatts (MW) installed

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller impact on the environment than burning fossil fuels. Historically ...

capacity placing France at that time as the world's seventh largest wind power nation by installed capacity, behind the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

and ahead of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. According to the IEA the yearly wind production was 20.2 TWh in 2015, representing almost 23% of the 88.4 TWh from

renewable sources A renewable resource, also known as a flow resource, is a natural resource which will replenish to replace the portion depleted by usage and consumption, either through natural reproduction or other recurring processes in a finite amount of ti ...

in France during that year. Wind provided 4.3% of the country’s electricity demand in 2015. France has the second largest wind potential in Europe. The country's large wind power potential is due to its large land area and extensive agricultural landscape where turbines may be located more readily as well as access to considerable offshore resources.

Timeline of developments

2022 In February 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France was to build 50 offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of at least 40 GW by 2050. 2019 In 2019, Emmanuel Macron confirmed France’s pledge to add 1 GW offshore wind every year between 2020-2024 as laid out in France’s new draft energy plan (PPE). 2016 While France has been a relative late developer in wind power compared to other European countries it has set the target of more than doubling onshore wind power capacity from 2015 levels by 2023. Offshore wind power is scheduled to come online from 2018 for the first time and including marine energy could rise to up to 11.1 GW of power by 2023. Realisation of these plans would more than likely see France overtake highly ranked

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in terms of installed capacity by 2023. 2015 By year-end 2015 the total onshore installed capacity of 10,358 MW consisted of 5,956 turbines, with the average turbine at just under 2 MW of power. Newer turbines may be larger following the development of wind power in the last decades. The leading regions in France in 2015 were

Champagne-Ardenne Champagne-Ardenne () is a former administrative region of France, located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium. Mostly corresponding to the historic province of Champagne, the region is known for its sparkling white wine of th ...

with an installed capacity of 1,682 MW,

Picardie Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hi ...

with 1,502 MW,

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

with 872 MW and Bretagne with 836 MW. 2006 Installed capacity rises above 1 GW for the first time during the year. 2001 The French government initially planned to produce 21% of its electricity consumption with renewable energy in 2010 to comply with European directive 2001/77/CE of 27 September 2001. This means that France had to produce 106 TWh of renewable energy in 2010, up from 71 TWh in 2006. Wind power represents 75% of the 35 TWh additional production in 2010.

Installed capacity

Future projections

Onshore

Onshore wind power is projected to rise to 15,000 MW by 2018 and between a low target scenario of 21,800 MW and a high target scenario of 26,000 MW by 2023.

Offshore

Between 2004 and 2011, high price and local fishing communities prevented some projects in the public ocean domain. After 2013, information was improved, and permissioning was moved from local to national regulatory authority. The commercial offshore wind power project came on line in 2022 with 480 MW capacity. By 2023 another traditional 3,000 MW of capacity is expected to come online with an additional 500 to 6,000 MW of performance dependent installation planned. Marine energy including floating wind turbines will add an additional 100 MW as well as an additional 200 to 2000 MW of capacity by 2023. Overall including marine energy offshore installed capacity will rise to between 3,100 and 11,100 MW by 2023. French law requires owners to decommission facilities at their end-of-life.

Offshore wind farms

The following offshore windfarm projects listed have submitted their applications for consent.

Floating turbine test sites

France is operating a number of offshore test sites for prototype

floating wind turbine A floating wind turbine is an offshore wind turbine mounted on a floating structure that allows the turbine to generate electricity in water depths where fixed-foundation turbines are not feasible. Floating wind farms have the potential to signi ...

s which would allow turbines to be located in deeper waters. These include the Nenaphur test site, the Nenuphar twin float, the Floatgen Project and the Sem-Rev Site d'Experimentation en Mer which also tests wave energy converters. On 30 April 2021, the French government launched a call for tenders for the first floating wind farm project in France. The wind farm is to be situated in southern Brittany and will generate between 230 and 270 MW when operating at capacity.

References

{{Wind power by country