RTE, the high voltage network manager in France, signed a 4.5 billion euro contract on Thursday with the Chantiers de l’Atlantique consortium and Hitachi Energy, notably for the construction of three electrical platforms intended to equip future parks. offshore wind turbines.
This “historic agreement”, “of an unprecedented scale for RTE”, concerns the construction of offshore platforms much more powerful than those currently built, and intended to equip the offshore wind farms of Normandy (Centre Manche 1 & 2) and Oléron, announced the three partners. In France, RTE is the contracting authority for connections to marine wind farms.
A “change of scale”
The agreement was signed during the visit of the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire, who in Loire-Atlantique reaffirmed the government’s support for the development of offshore wind power.
It concerns the construction of three offshore stations as well as electrical conversion stations on land. These direct current offshore platforms will have a higher power (1,250 MW) and a larger size than the alternating current ones currently equipping the first French offshore wind farms.
These infrastructures “symbolize the change of scale involved in the production of renewable electricity at sea”, and “position France in the landscape of the few European nations capable of building large electrical substations and direct current converter stations (HVDC) at sea,” underlines the joint press release from the three signatories.
Direct current makes it possible to transport electricity at sea over very long distances, and is therefore suitable for the new generation of offshore parks, more powerful and sometimes located further from the coast, where the winds are stronger and more regular, they explain.
Platforms manufactured in Saint-Nazaire
“Almost all of the economic benefits from the construction of these platforms will thus take place in Europe, including almost half in France, notably within Chantiers de l’Atlantique, one of the largest shipyards in Europe,” specifies the press release. .
The three offshore platforms will be manufactured in Saint-Nazaire at Chantiers de l’Atlantique, which has already built around ten offshore platforms, although smaller, for France and Europe.
The press release added that Hitachi Energy’s expertise in technology of this type is “globally recognized”.
Chantiers de l’Atlantique will have to double their platform production capacity, via nearly 100 million euros of investment in an extension, to equip itself in particular with the largest paint cell in Europe. It will be able to “capitalize on its facilities”, including its hold which can lift up to 1,400 tonnes.
