“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç

Fourteen bids have been submitted in response to the French government's call for tenders for 500 MW of onshore wind farms. Most of the bids are for projects in the north and central regions, where bidders are proposing four projects in Picardy, two in the central region and one each in Borgogne, Franche-Comté, Haute-Normandie and Lorraine. Of the remaining bids, two concern projects in southerly Languedoc-Roussillon, one in Midi-Pyrénées and one in Corsica. The French electricity regulatory body, Commission de Régulation de l'Électricité (CRE), has declined to provide any further details, in keeping with its quiet handling of the offshore tender process (“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç, October 2004). CRE now has up to July 31 to assess the bids, while selected projects must be completed by January 1, 2006. The French wind energy association (FEE) maintains this schedule is impossibly tight and argues that not all projects will be realised (“uåX˜äŠÊ˜·³Ç, January 2005).