France’s Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm had been under construction for about 10 years. The wind farm is located off the coast of Brittany in north-western France consists  of 80 units of 6 megawatts (MW) Wind Turbine Generators.

The first offshore wind turbine was installed in April and the wind farm delivered its first power to the French national grid in June 2022. More nacelles continued to be phased in.

France’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm began fully operational on Wednesday, 23-November-2022 adding 480 MW of capacity to the grid at a time when Europe is scrambling to secure energy supplies partly as a result of the war in Ukraine due to Russia’s invasion.

The Saint-Nazaire wind farm, spread over an area of ​​78 km and located between 12 and 20 km off France’s west coast, features 80 turbines that will provide clean energy to power the equivalent of 400,000 homes annually, or 20% of the Loire-Atlantique region’s electricity consumption.

The last of the wind farm’s 80 GE Haliade 150-6 MW wind turbines was installed at the site located between 12 and 20 kilometers off the coast of the Guérande peninsula by Jan De Nul’s Vole au vent in early September.

Eolien Maritime France (EMF) –a consortium of EDF Renewables, Enbridge, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board– developed and owns the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm. ”Enbridge is excited about the arrival of the first commercial-scale offshore wind project in France, the Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm, and about our role as a leader of the global energy transition,” said Enbridge Senior Vice President, Power, Strategy and New Energy Technology, Matthew Akman.

The Saint-Nazaire project took about 10 years to complete. In September, French President Emmanuel Macron visited to inaugurate the Saint-Nazaire wind farm. He vowed to cut red tape to reduce the development time by half of what it takes in France to get renewable projects off the ground.

Saint-Nazaire Offshore Wind Farm will contribute to achieve the target of 40% renewable energy by 2030, and carbon neutrality by 2050 in France. President Macron said he wants France to have about 50 offshore wind farms by 2050.

“Over the past 10 years, this project has contributed to the construction of the offshore wind power industry in France and has mobilized a significant number of jobs during construction and now in the operating phase.”

        “This first wind farm is part of the EDF Group’s strategy to double its net capacity of global renewable energy to reach 60 GW in 2030. We are also participating in the National Low-Carbon Strategy of the government, which aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through energy conservation, nuclear power and the acceleration of renewables.” said EDF Renewables CEO Bruno Bensasson.

About a hundred workers shall continue to be employed at the site to operate and maintain the wind farm.