October 1st, 2016, French Prime Minister Mr. Manuel Valls, together with the Minister of Defence Mr. Le Drian, the provincial governor of Brittany and media reporters, paid a visit to the site of the pilot floating offshore wind parks (“ Project Le Groix”). The project is the first of its kind to be carried out in Europe by CGNEE.
According to the construction program, the site of the project is located on the coastline of the province of Morbihan in Brittany, the specific location is about 10 km south of the coast of Groix Island, 15 km north-west of the coast of Belle-île Island. It is expected that the project will be composed of four 6-MW GE turbines, and will be put into operation in 2020, satisfying the daily electricity demand of 40000 residents. A consortium led by CGN Europe Energy and the French group Eolfi has won the tender for this pilot floating project on July 22nd, 2017. There are also other partners involved in this project, including the French state-owned shipbuilding company DCNS, the well-known French infrastructure group VINCI and wind turbine manufacturer GE, etc. Based on the efforts in the early years, this project enjoys a good local acceptability, and all circles look forward to the smooth progress of the project.Prime Minister Mr. Valls said that the project would be a concrete practice of technological innovation in the domain of renewable energies, and also the best demonstration of industrial chain coordination and local cooperation. He emphasized that China and France had a long history of cooperation in the energy sector, and this project has showed once again a high degree of strategic complementarity between France and China. Mr. Prime Minister expected that CGN Europe Energy would cooperate well with other partners and to lay a foundation for further development of offshore wind power.
