Energiequelle and CEE to build two more wind farms in France, with a total installed capacity of 32 megawatts

In Brittany, the 20-megawatt (MW) La Ferrière wind farm comprising eight Nordex-N 100 wind turbines with a hub height of around 100 metres, is currently under construction. It will produce around 56 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity annually. The second wind farm is located near St. Mandé in the Poitou-Charentes region. St. Mandé has a total capacity of 12 MW, generated by six Enercon E-70 wind turbines. The hub height of the latter is around 65 metres. This farm is expected to produce 21 million kWh of electricity per year. Both the wind farms are currently in the first phase of construction, with connection to the grid scheduled for the third and fourth quarters of this year. The planner and project manager of both these wind farms is Energiequelle GmbH, with whom CEE implemented the first French wind farm in its portfolio two years ago. As Gregor Weber, head of foreign operations at Energiequelle GmbH, puts it, “With more than 100 MW of installed power capacity, we have an established presence on the French wind energy market. The foundations for successful, long-term collaboration were laid when we built CEE’s 12 MW wind farm in Delouze-Rosières, in the region of Lorraine. We would like to continue that collaboration for a long time to come.”

When the two new wind farms are included, CEE’s wind energy portfolio in France will grow by 32 MW to 44 MW. The entire power generation portfolio of the Hamburg-based company, including the wind farms under construction, will total 170 MW. The company is rigorously implementing its plans, announced at the beginning of the year, to give greater weight to the foreign investments in its portfolio.

For CEE, the French wind energy market offers attractive investment conditions for onshore wind turbines, due to to favourable wind conditions, geographical proximity, legal security and government grants. “From the perspective of investors, France provides many advantages”, says Detlef Schreiber, the CEO of CEE. “We profit from having entered the market at an early stage, and can now benefit from having an established partner and in-depth experience with the specific features of the French legal and tax system, which all favour investments in wind energy and photovoltaic projects.”

Until now, France has generated three quarters of its electricity needs with nuclear power stations, whereas wind energy accounts for less than three per cent. According to figures provided by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), the total installed capacity at the end of 2013 was around 8,250 MW, which equates to about a quarter of the total installed capacity in Germany. However, the French government plans to increase the total wind energy capacity to 25,000 MW by the year 2020, 19,000 MW of which is to be installed onshore.