BayWa r.e. and Elicio, winners of the French floating wind auction

The main topic of the last edition was the French floating wind auction and the statements of the French Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who mentioned a price below €100/MWh, which surprised many.

It was this week when the winners and the award price were revealed. The winner was a consortium formed by BayWa r.e. and Elicio with an award price of €86.45/MWh, exceeding all expectations.

Finally, the awarded megawatts amounted to 270, as the auction allowed a figure between 230 and 270. A total of 10 participants were bidding to secure the megawatts, giving us an idea of the interest shown.

The thing is, the €86.45/MWh has pleased many and frightened many others. I really can’t assess well whether this price is dangerously low or not, as it requires knowing the auction details very well, which greatly affects the business case.

But undoubtedly, it seems an aggressive price and the sector is between expectant and surprised (interesting the comments section of this LinkedIn post or this thread on Twitter/X).

This award is a significant milestone for European offshore wind energy, as until now only pilot and demonstration projects had been developed. Several times we have discussed here about Kincardine and Hywind Scotland in the UK (30 MW each), WindFloat Atlantic in Portugal (25 MW), and Hywind Tampen in Norway (95 MW).

It is expected that France will announce the winners of another two 250 MW sites in the Mediterranean in December of this year. Meanwhile, the next European markets where there should be movement in the coming years are Spain, Portugal, Norway, Greece, and Italy, which are moving towards their first floating wind auctions.

Sergio Fdez Munguía

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