France turning away from nuclear energy planing assive increase of wind power

France plans a massive increase of wind power. In the following years five off-shore farms will be installed near the shores of  Normandy and Bretagne. This is an investment of ten billion Euro generating 3 GigaWatt in 2016. [1]

France tries to reduce its dependence on nuclear energy. The country has 58 nuclear power plants producing 75 % of its electricity. A nuclear safety report of the French nuclear watchdog demands improvements of power plants. The state-owned energy company EdF estimates the costs of these safety demands to sore up to 50 billion Euro if the operation time  is extended to 60 years.

The socialist François Hollande promisses to shut down 24 nuclear power plants until 2025,  if he wins the election in spring. This would boost wind power in France. Great Britain is leading wind power in Europe. It will have 18 GigaWatt built in 2020, Germany follows wit 10 GigaWatt.
According to the Global Wind Energy Council, France plans to install 25 GW of wind power,  to meet its obligation under the EU Directive to cover 23% of final energy demand from renewable sources by 2020.  France has 3,500 operating wind turbines adding 1 GigaWatt each year. [2]

Energy Mix Wind turbines crude oil and coal competing

Feed-in tariff in France
The level of feed-in tariff in France is EUR 8.2 cent/kWh for onshore installations and EUR 13 cent/ kWh for offshore installations for the first ten years of operation, and then adjusted for the following ten years.

[1] Atom-Abkehr: Frankreich plant massiven Ausbau der Windenergie Spiegel Online 11.Jan.2012
http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,808463,00.html

[2] Global Wind Energy Council: France. The Wind power industry in France
http://www.gwec.net/index.php?id=128