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Partnering with WREN, questionnaires are sent to offshore wind energy developers around the world who are involved in environmental monitoring. This page provides contextual project information and highlights environmental monitoring, providing links to available data and reports. Content is updated annually.

Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm

Description

The Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm is the first offshore wind farm in France, developed by EDF Renewables, Enbridge, and GE. The project is the first of three awarded by the French government, with the next wind farms to be developed near Fécamp and Courseulles-sur-Mer. These projects are planned to include a total of 238 wind turbines with a capacity to provide power to 2 million people. These developments are part of France’s goal to reach a target of 32% renewable energy consumption by 2030.

The site on the Banc de Guérande was chosen for its combination of strong winds and relatively shallow depth as well as its relative freedom from maritime constraints and compatibility with environmental issues. The wind farm is also open to navigation if vessels are less than 25 meters in length and follow certain speed, activity, and navigation rules. 

The GE Haliade turbines used for the project were first tested at a land-based wind energy installation along the Loire River. After the successful test, a second turbine was deployed off the coast of Belgium for marine testing of the deployment method. 

Location

The Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm covers a 78 km2 area of the Banc de Guérande, 12 km to 20 km off the Loire-Atlantique coast. The wind farm is operated and maintained from the port of La Turballe where a 1,250-m2 maintenance building is located. There are three maintenance vessels located at La Turballe for daily operations on the wind farm. Cable landfall occurs near Saint-Nazaire and then travels overland through Trignac, Montoir-de-Bretagne, Donges, and ends at Prinquiau.

Project Timeline

  • November 2022: Fully operational and commissioned
  • June 2022: First electrical production
  • April 2022: First turbine installed
  • August 2021: Offshore substation and 19 wind turbine foundations installed
  • June 2021: 73 monopile foundations excavated
  • May 2021: First foundation installed
  • September 2020: First turbine nacelle manufactured
  • September 2019: Construction started
  • June 2019: Final decision from the Conseil d’État awarded
  • 2017: Construction and operating permits issued
  • 2012: Government of France names Éolien Maritime France (EMF) as winning bidder for project
  • 2008: Start of technical and environmental studies

Licensing Information

In 2017, French local authorities issued construction and operating permits. In June 2019, the Conseil d’État delivered a final decision upholding these authorizations.

Key Environmental Issues

Beginning in 2008, several studies provided background environmental information about the proposed installation areas, identified potential environmental issues, and proposed monitoring plans for the site. The project then performed baseline or reference studies in 2019 prior to the beginning of marine operations and construction. The baseline studies were used for during- and post-construction comparisons but also provided comparisons to data from the earlier studies. Following the baseline studies, monitoring has continued each year and is posted in an annual summary report.

Several key environmental issues have required the implementation of monitoring measures: changes in water quality; effects on benthic communities and fisheries (including large crustaceans and fish larvae); impacts to marine mammals, birds, and bats; and potential noise effects on shorelines.

In addition, the wind farm area is used by sensitive species of marine mammals and seabirds; therefore, several mitigation measures were put in place during construction activities, as well as for the whole duration of the project:

  • During construction activities, pingers and seal-scarers were used before any pile driving started to ward off marine mammals potentially in the vicinity. Hydrophones mounted on buoys around the construction zone allowed to verify in real time the absence of cetaceans before and during pile driving. Once all clear, pile driving started, following a gradual increase in intensity, ready to stop immediately if any marine mammal were detected in proximity to the construction zone. In addition, a bubble curtain was used to limit in-water propagation of pile-driving noise.
  • To protect and improve the quality of nearby breeding grounds of the Great black-backed gull (Larus marinus), specific measures were implemented to remove rats, that prey on eggs, from islets in the vicinity of the wind farm. In addition, to protect the critically endangered Balearic shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus) if any were observed in the wind farm area at any time, specific navigation rules were established, as well as outreach to recreational boaters to educate on this very sensitive species.
  • During the construction phase, it was required that vessels related to the construction activities limit their night-time lighting, as long as it was safe to do so, to decrease the potential attraction effects to birds, bats, and other animals attracted by anthropogenic lights. In addition, safety markers for the wind farm during its operation phase are designed as to decrease night-time light attraction.