Wind Energy – France
The Iberdrola group and AXA IM Alts signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate in the deployment of offshore wind energy in France.
Under this agreement, the French firm will participate as a minority shareholder in the development of a 1000 wind farm in Normandy, should Iberdrola be awarded the project in the auction in which it has already been shortlisted.
Bids for this tender, denominated AO4, will be sumitted on November 10 and the award is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023. The future site will be located more than 30 kilometers off the coast of Normandy, in an area with very favorable wind and seabed conditions for this technology.
With this transaction – subject to obtaining regulatory approvals – AXA IM Alts advances its strategy of generating sustainable value for its clients with a high commitment to social impact, values it fully shares with the Iberdrola Group. With €184 billion of assets under management, AXA IM Alts has a key presence in France.
In addition to this tender, Iberdrola has also been pre-qualified for the development of three other offshore wind energy projects each with a capacity of 250 MW. Two of them in the Gulf of León, in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, which are expected to be awarded in the fall of 2023 and are scheduled for commissioning in 2030.
The third project the company is bidding for is France’s future first floating offshore wind farm, to be built some 20 kilometers off Pointe des Poulains, a peninsula at the northwestern tip of Belle-Île in Brittany.
The French government plans to designate the winner of the tender next spring, so that it can start operating in 2030.
