French wind power sector to consolidate further – EDF

PARIS: France’s wind power generation sector will consolidate further, the head EDF’s renewables unit Antoine Cahuzac said on Wednesday as the company moves to complete the takeover of wind energy developer Futuren . The renewables subsidiary of the French state-controlled utility has acquired 67.2 percent of Futuren, and will on Thursday launch a public offer for the remaining shares in a deal worth 320 million euros ($363 million).

“The consolidation will not end here,” Cahuzac, Chief Executive of EDF Energies Nouvelles, told reporters. He added that after the acquisition of Quadran by Direct Energie; and Compagnie du Vent by Engie, further consolidation, also in solar, should be expected. The French renewables market is evolving rapidly with two major players, Engie and EDF, at the top, he said. There are about a dozen medium-sized players and another tier of small players with about 10 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity.

“Competition is getting tougher and we are seeing a lot of consolidation, not only in France,” Cahuzac said.

EDF plans to double its installed renewables capacity including hydro power generation to about 50 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 in strategic countries, top among which is France, and also Germany, Italy and Morocco, he said. “We will focus on organic growth, mostly with greenfield projects, but we will not exclude acquisitions, particularly in cases where there is already an important development portfolio in the pipeline,” he added. He also announced that EDF Energies Nouvelles had bought Germany’s Offshore Wind Solutions (OWS), a wind farm operations and maintenance company, but declined to disclose the value of the deal. The Futuren acquisition will add 389 MW of capacity to EDF’s portfolio, with a further 168 MW currently under development. EDF Energies Nouvelles plans to grow its market share of French wind power generation to 15-16 percent in the near term from about 12 percent now, with some 1.4 GW of installed capacity, second behind market leader Engie.

Source:IANS