The French government plans to open a tender for tidal energy projects off the regions of Normandy and Brittany later this year.
The competitive dialogue procedure will be launched later in 2017, following the establishment of precise zones that would host projects from 50MW to 100MW.
The tender was announced by the French Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, Ségolène Royal, who also said the government has given a mandate to prefects to identify the precise demonstration zones in Brittany and Normandy.
France has in 2016 set the revised offshore renewable energy targets under which it plans to have 100MW of installed marine renewable energy projects by 2023.
At that time, the French government also said it expected the volume of the projects awarded by public tenders and underway in 2023 to reach 2000 MW for marine renewables, including wave and tidal, and 6000 MW for offshore wind.