Winds of Change: France Plugs Into Deepwater Power

Ocean Winds and Banque des Territoires deliver first power from EFGL, unlocking a 250 MW commercial-scale sequel in the Mediterranean

19 May 2026

To build a wind turbine on land requires a concrete base. To build one in the shallow parts of the North Sea requires a steel pillar driven into the seabed. But to harness the stronger winds blowing across the deeper Mediterranean, engineers must try something more difficult: making a structure the size of a skyscraper float.

On May 4th 2026, France successfully did just that. The EFGL project, a small cluster of three floating turbines sitting 16 kilometres off the coast of Port-La Nouvelle, began sending electricity into the national grid. Developed by Ocean Winds and Banque des Territoires, the 30-megawatt pilot is designed to power 50,000 homes. Beneath the waves, the platforms even feature artificial habitats to help local marine life.

European governments are watching closely. Most of the world's best offshore wind locations are in waters too deep for traditional, fixed-bottom towers. Floating platforms can unlock these vast areas. Better yet for politicians anxious about industrial decline, the project relied almost entirely on a European supply chain, with most contractors based in France.

Yet, the breeze comes at a steep price. Floating wind remains far more expensive than fixed-bottom alternatives or solar power. It requires complex mooring lines and heavy port infrastructure to assemble the giant structures before towing them out to sea. Without hefty government subsidies, such projects rarely make financial sense. Elsewhere in Europe, developers have recently scrapped floating wind plans because rising inflation made them unprofitable.

France thinks it can overcome these financial hurdles through sheer scale. The developers have already secured a contract for a much larger, 250-megawatt sequel in the same region, dubbed EFLO, which aims to power half a million homes by using the infrastructure built for the pilot.

For the technology to truly go global, developers must prove they can cut costs when scaling up. If they fail, floating wind risks becoming an expensive boutique industry, forever dependent on the taxpayer. For now, France has shown that the engineering works. Whether the economics will ever catch up is another matter.