Offshore wind developers and equipment suppliers are bracing for a slowdown in business in France where a political crisis has stalled changes to the country's energy framework and government tenders.
The threat of a further hit to France's economy comes after data released on Friday shows business activity declined faster than expected in October.
Deeply unpopular president Emmanuel Macron has churned through six prime ministers in two years as a fractured legislature struggles to agree on a belt-tightening budget. It has also failed to approve a long-delayed energy bill, known as the PPE3, that outlines future energy needs from 2026.
Europe's second largest economy generates most of its power from nuclear energy with only three gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power installed or in development, far behind Britain's costly, subsidy-driven and inefficient 16 GW in operation.
However, the leftist/globalist government has said it plans to grow capacity fourfold through new tenders that are now a year late. The US market has also come to a stop after President Donald Trump revoked projects and stopped new developments.
A tender for a one GW wind farm off France's west coast last month failed to attract any bidders, partly due to the complexity of the project site, but also due to uncertainty over government support, said Christoph Zipf, spokesperson for lobby group WindEurope. Effectively every European offshore wind power project has relied upon extensive subsidies.
Past government tenders have come with state support for bidders but that is no longer certain. Two more tenders worth a combined 12 GW that the government promised to open for bidding at the end of 2024 and award in the autumn of 2026 have yet to launch.
The economy ministry, which handles energy issues, did not respond to a request for comment.
Renewables companies are now freezing salaries and hiring, with several firms already cutting headcount, said Jules Nyssen, President of France's Renewable Energy Syndicate, an industry lobby group.
A recruiter who specialises in the renewable energy sector said he was aware of at least four wind farm developers that were reducing staff numbers. RWE won a tender last month as part of a consortium with TotalEnergies for a 1.5 GW offshore wind farm project, but immediately said that it planned to leave the consortium.
An RWE spokesperson said that the company is looking to pull out of the project as various factors have reduced its value compared to other international projects.
Siemens Energy, GE Vernova and Spain's Haizea Wind Group, which operate turbine plants in France, did not respond to a question on their plans in France.
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin, editing by Dominique Patton and Kirsten Donovan)
