How should the value of offshore wind farms be shared between the regions?
February 2025
Réseau pour la transition énergétique (CLER)
With a target of 50 farms off the French coast by 2050, offshore wind power is booming. Essential to the transition of our energy model, the industrial sector must organise itself, involving the regions and creating local virtuous circles. But how?
Considered to be a sector that has finally matured, offshore wind power is booming. Now competitive, its cost (for fixed wind turbines at least) has stabilised at 45 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) compared with 142 euros in 2012. Driven by a stronger, more stable and more regular sea breeze than on land, the installations are also increasingly powerful: a capacity of 1500 MW is expected for farms currently under development, three times more than that of farms already installed (source: Éoliennes en mer, France). During the work on the revision of the French energy and climate strategy in June 2023, the government published a trajectory for the deployment of offshore wind power, providing for the commissioning of 45 GW by 2050 - almost equivalent to the French nuclear fleet.
A high entry ticket
Our maritime area, the second largest in Europe after Great Britain, now has twelve wind farm projects on its four coasts (Eastern English Channel North Sea, North Atlantic Western Channel, South Atlantic, Mediterranean). Three industrial sites are already in operation in Saint-Nazaire, Fécamp and Saint-Brieuc. More than ten companies are now competing for contracts when calls for tenders are issued. ‘In the face of this growth, it is essential to consider how the value produced by the farms can be fairly distributed among the energy players and coastal regions,’ warns Auréline Doreau, Renewable Energy Project Manager at the Cler network. However, the size of the projects and the huge amounts of money at stake seem to effectively sideline the regions and citizens. ‘How can you get involved in the governance of a local project if you don’t have the means to invest in it? The entry ticket is too high for regional stakeholders.’
Wind, a common good
However, this attractiveness and the planned investments increase the opportunities for economic and port development locally. According to the French marine energy observatory, more than 8,000 jobs were mobilised in offshore wind nationally in June 2023. The Offshore Wind Pact (between the State and the industry) has set itself the target of reaching 20,000 jobs by 2035. Taxation also generates significant income: on the public maritime domain (up to 12 nautical miles from the coast), the annual amount of the specific offshore wind tax will be almost 20,000 euros per megawatt installed in 2024. This amount is distributed among coastal municipalities, fishermen’s committees, the French Office for Biodiversity and sea rescue organisations. Several million euros over the lifespan of a wind farm whose use is not earmarked… for example, to support ecological transition projects.
‘Why not use this money to create a virtuous circle?‘ asks Olivier Labussière, geographer and research fellow at the CNR, who set up the Eolenmer observatory with Alain Nadaï. “The wind and the landscape are our ”commons’. Wind power taxation could be used to support other social or environmental ‘commons’,’ he imagines. Like any new technology, they must be integrated into a milieu – environment, landscape, human activities – to be fully operational. Negotiation is therefore mandatory between the developer and the stakeholders of ‘local value’ in order to create synergies. This approach goes beyond market logic and takes social sciences into account.’ Within the Eolenmer observatory, funded by ADEME, fifty researchers are conducting research until 2026 to explore these ‘bio-socio-spatial’ issues - by studying the first parks in operation.
Tenders with local added value
In some regions, Sea Parliaments have been set up to address these issues locally, such as in Occitanie, Brittany and Hauts-de-France. ‘These variable-geometry political and democratic bodies allow for debate on individual as well as collective interests,’ says Alain Nadaï. They also raise the question of the role of the State in coordinating the deployment of wind power. The Directorate-General for Energy and Climate (DGEC) has the power to require developers to provide guarantees in the context of calls for tenders where the notion of value sharing could be intensified and clarified. ‘We can see that the State is groping its way through these issues by modifying the content with each new call for tenders,’ observes the researcher. As with onshore wind power, the use of participatory investment is one of the conditions to be met, but it represents only 2% of all the criteria (this is the case, for example, of the AO6 call for tenders won by ENGIE via Ocean Winds at the end of 2024).
‘Social issues and territorial development must be taken into account more,’ says Auréline Doreau. ’But we also need to address the issue of the governance of these farms and the possibility for local stakeholders to participate in decision-making. It should not be left solely in the hands of developers.’ Especially since in France it is difficult to imagine the structuring of a national citizens’ cooperative capable, as in Belgium with the Belgian offshore wind cooperative Seacoop, of responding to and winning a call for tenders from the Energy Regulatory Commission. Without a 100% citizen offshore wind farm on the horizon, as there are on land, other levers must be activated to increase the sharing of the local value of offshore farms. Fabrice Collignon, vice president of Seacoop, recounts his experience in an interview.
The Cler network proposes:
– That calls for tenders should give greater consideration to the participation of local authorities or citizens’ groups in the capital and/or governance of projects.
– To clarify the rules for the distribution of the value generated by offshore wind power, particularly through the wind tax, in the coastal areas concerned.