After an initial good reception, this project won in 2012, which obtained all its authorizations in 2017, then faced many appeals and fierce opposition from local residents and fishermen, taken over by politicians of all sides, despite very restrictive arrangements agreed to on the project.
In order to meet the demands of fishermen and to move away from the main scallop fishing area, the park area was shifted 6 km to the north towards rocky bottoms (on which it is much more complicated to install wind turbines) and the cables were buried. To minimise the impact on the environment, a tripod foundation model, also called a jacket, and a drilling system rather than pile driving, which is quieter, were chosen. Bringing the cost of the project to 2.4 billion euros.
An improbable industrial tourism
Despite these constraints, which have made the Breton park “one of the most complex offshore wind projects in the world”Saint Brieuc “is a success”, assures Emmanuel Rollin, the director of Iberdrola France. On the day of the inauguration, 60 of the 62 8 MW wind turbines manufactured by Siemens Gamesa in Le Havre (Manche) are in production, two being in scheduled maintenance. They will produce 1820 GWh per year, or 9% of the electricity consumed in Brittany.
Fishing activities have fully resumed this summer inside the park, with fishermen even observing that the resource, far from having decreased, has even increased for certain species. Scallop fishing, a treasure of the Bay of Saint-Brieuc, has not been disturbed by the work. It has even been particularly fruitful over the last two years. More unexpectedly, a tourist activity has developed since 2023 around the park, with tours organized by boat in particular by the Vedettes de Bréhat, which took 5,000 curious visitors in 2023 and 10,000 in 2024.
So what does it matter to Iberdrola that the new Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, had, like others, expressed himself quite harshly against the project in 2021. “He was misinformed,” excuse Emmanuel Rollin. According to him, the Saint-Brieuc park is even today a showcase of the Spanish energy company’s know-how in fixed offshore wind power.After Saint-Brieuc, we can do any project we want”repeat the Iberdola France teams.
The Spanish company, which also operates the West of Duddon Sands wind farms in the Irish Sea, Wikinger in the Baltic Sea and East Anglia One in the North Sea, has already capitalised on this exceptional experience by winning the first offshore wind farm in the United States, Vineyard Wind 1, which will be built in 2025-2026 with 13 MW GE wind turbines manufactured in Saint-Nazaire and Cherbourg. “We have already invested around 15 billion euros in wind farms that are now already finished. And this summer, we won two more wind farms, one for the United States and another for England, representing an additional 10 billion in investments.”said Ignacio Sánchez Galán during a press briefing the day before the inauguration.
Fishermen almost happy
The CEO of Iberdrola also recalled the legacy of the Saint-Brieuc project, which leaves on the polder of Brest (Finistère) an infrastructure, built to assemble part of the jackets by the consortium Navantia Windar and its subcontractors and the masts of the 62 wind turbines by the company Haizea Breizh, and which is now occupied by Engie for the projects of Yeux-Noirmoutier and Dieppe-Le Tréport. And an agreement has finally been concluded with the port of Saint-Quay-Portrieux, so that Iberdrola can install its maintenance center there within five years, including the construction of a new pontoon.
In the meantime, maintenance is being carried out at sea until 2028 by Siemens Gamesa teams on the Guëlo Enabler vessel, currently based in Saint-Malo. To make it easier to avoid fishermen’s traps, buoys visible to the vessel’s radar were made by former fishermen from Paimpol.
The revolt of Breton fishermen against the wind farm seems to have been well and truly extinguished. “We are neighbors with the fishermen and it’s going well”notes Emmanuel Rollin, who nevertheless prefers to remain cautious in his remarks. Opposition to the park has not in fact disappeared. “Opposition to wind power in France is very organized and has become professional,” states the person in charge of Iberdrola.
But that is not enough to stop responding to new calls for tender. “France is a strategic country for us”recalled Ignacio Galán during the inauguration. With Iberdrola not wanting to venture into floating wind, the opportunities to build other parks on the French coast are dwindling.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
