Pennavel and Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port Sign an Agreement in Principle

At the Seanergy Trade Show, which was held in Nantes on 19th and 20th May, Jean-Rémy Villageois, Chair of the Management Board of Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port, Jérôme Hilt, Project Director, and Christophe Perrin, Technical Director at Pennavel, signed an agreement in principle on 19th May regarding the project to site a floating offshore wind farm facility off the coast of Southern Brittany.

The agreement formalizes the shared commitment of both parties to continue the discussions that began in late 2021, with a view to exploring the possibility of Pennavel utilizing the port infrastructures on the Loire Estuary. The Pennavel project aims to build a floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Southern Brittany, between the Islands of Groix and Belle-Île-en-Mer. Resulting from the fifth national call for tenders (AO5) and awarded in 2024, it will generate approximately 250 MW of power, making it the largest commercial floating wind farm in France. Led by an industrial consortium (Elicio and BayWa r.e.), Pennavel is expected to come on stream around 2032 and to generate renewable electricity capable of providing enough electricity for around 450 000 inhabitants.

The annual gathering of the offshore renewable energy industry, Seanergy also provided an opportunity for the teams from Nantes ‒ Saint Nazaire Port in attendance on the Pays de la Loire Regional Authority stand to present their project for an assembly platform and industrial integration base for fixed-foundation and floating wind turbines in Saint Nazaire (Éole).

Éole is designed to support the deployment of future offshore wind farms along France’s Atlantic Seaboard. It will primarily consist of a 530-metre-long quay and storage facilities for components both onshore and on the water, and will thus be able to meet the needs of wind power sector manufacturers and operators from 2032 onwards