Wind turbine installation and service company Global Wind Service (GWS) opens a new business unit in Nantes in France. This follows the recent award of the load-out and installation of the 80-turbine Saint Nazaire offshore wind farm – the first offshore wind farm in France.

Being part of the offshore wind development in France is a clear part of GWS' strategy to be number one in offshore wind installation and service globally.

“As said before, Global Wind Service has a very strong growth ambition. That, combined with the ambitious targets for French wind power development looking towards 2030 and even towards 2050 makes France a natural next step for us in terms of expansion.

Not long ago President Emmanuel Macron announced that France intends to build around 40GW of offshore wind by 2050. Adding to this comes onshore wind and need for re-powering of aging turbines.

All of this makes France an attractive market for both GWS and our clients, and it gives a solid baseline to invest in a local organization to ensure close proximity to our clients and to further strengthen our relations” said Michael Høj Olsen, CEO of Global Wind Service.

According to the 2030 National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), submitted in 2021, France has a target of 33% renewable energy in its energy mix by 2030 – a 10% increase. As such, the country’s goal is to increase onshore installed capacity from 16.6GW (in 2019) to 37.7 GW and increase offshore installed capacity from 0.002GW (in 2019) to 7.4GW by 2030.