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Wall Street JournalThe French government on Monday announced the launch of a €10 billion ($14.26 billion) tender offer to build five offshore wind farms, in a bid to boost the country's renewable-energy industry and reduce its longstanding reliance on atomic power.
The wind farms, which will comprise some 1,200 wind turbines off the north and west coast of France, should generate 3.5% of the country's electricity output, the French ecology and industry ministries said. The initial tender will be followed by a second in April 2012. The farms will come online between 2015 and 2020.
The long-awaited tender is part of a wider government push to make renewable energy account for 23% of total energy production by 2020. It also comes as France's government is under increasing pressure to reduce its dependence on nuclear power.
Atomic energy generates around 80% of France's electricity needs, but following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan, and with the 2012 presidential elections looming, political support for the energy source is beginning to waver. France's historically pro-nuclear Socialist Party is negotiating an electoral alliance with the country's green party, Europe Ecologie, which has campaigned to completely exit nuclear energy.
The wind-farm project not only soothes voter concerns but also could help spur the creation of a French national champion in wind energy, analysts said. Compared with its neighbor Germany, France has been slow off the mark in rolling out renewable energy, which currently accounts for 12.4% of its energy output, compared with Germany's 16.9%.
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