These two projects, in the Haute Normandie and Pays de la Loire regions respectively, fall within the second call for tenders for French offshore wind energy projects. 

Each site offers capacity of 480-500 MW to be brought into service between 2021 and 2023.

The national call for tenders for 1,000 MW is in addition to the first call for tenders for 2,500 MW launched in 2011, which comprised five wind energy projects off the French coast (the Channel and the Atlantic). Three of the four lots awarded by the French government were won by the consortium headed by EDF Energies Nouvelles: Fécamp (498 MW), Courseulles-sur-Mer (450 MW) and Saint-Nazaire (480 MW). These projects are due to come into service starting from 2018.

Alstom will be exclusive supplier for the turbines in the project and as part of the plan, Alstom has begun building four plants to manufacture various key components of the wind turbines. The two Saint-Nazaire plants which will produce the nacelles and the generators have been under construction since spring 2013 and are due to be completed in late 2014. Building permit application for the blades and tower factories in Cherbourg will be soon submitted.