France bets big on offshore wind

The country will accelerate its move away from fossil fuels and even reduce its iconic nuclear fleet

Growth in French renewables capacity has so far fallen short of expectations. The country will miss its binding EU 2020 target for renewables to account for 23pc of final energy consumption; the share in 2018 was less than 17pc, according to the Eurostat statistics agency. While it looks impressive that renewables—across hydro, wind, solar and bioenergy—account for almost 40pc of France’s installed power capacity (see Figure 1), it is rather less positive that last year the country generated just 21.5pc of its power from these sources, over half of which from was hydro (see Figure 2).        The government is now, though, committing strongly to wind—both on and offshore. France’s final 10-ye