France Wind Energy

More than agriculture and tourism: in French Burgundy many new jobs are to be created through the expansion of the industry. Photo: pitopia A change of mood

In the French Burgundy region no new industrial centres had been set up for a long time. Now that the wind power sector has moved in and set up a supplier cluster, however, things are now looking up again in the region.

or many years, looking for wind power projects cy “Bourgogne Développement”. And expansion would have been fruitless. But in 2009 the first could accelerate rapidly in the coming months, for Fwind farm was put up near the regional capital planning approval has already been given for a fur- Dijon. It consists of 25 V90 turbines totalling ther 199 turbines with a total capacity of 416.6 MW. 50 MW and was a project run by Eole-RES of Avignon. The region in the heart of Eastern France has a And now, more projects are being implemented, with wind power potential which shouldn’t be underesti- the construction of the first in the­Burgundy mated; by 2015, estimates Schuddinck, 717 MW of département of Yonne starting in November 2010, for wind power capacity could be installed in the four example. départements Côte-d’Or, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire and “There are currently 35 wind turbines in opera- Yonne. The economic promoter points to the results tion in our region, with a total capacity of 70 MW,” re- of a wind atlas which the Burgundy region had ports Emmanuel Schuddinck, who is mainly respon- drawn up in 2005. There are good to very good wind sible for the as a developer for power locations especially in the two northern the regional authority’s economic development agen- départements Yonne and Côte-d’Or, with the

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­southern départements being interesting for wind power use as well. The argument of jobs is convincing

For a long time there was scepticism in Burgundy about the use of wind power. One reason for this was certainly that the nature reserve Morvan lies in the centre of the region as a landscape particularly wor- thy of protection. The scepticism spread across the entire region, one which is heavily dependent on tourism – not least also thanks to its world-famous wine region with its fine vineyards. But now a change of mood has taken place and many locals consider the objections to be less seri- The Burgundy wind cluster was set up in September ous than before. This is partly because several wind 2010. The founding meeting was chaired by the head power suppliers have created jobs in the region and of Burgundy Regional Council François Patriat (left) awakened the economy. The German company SIAG, and Céole head Dominique Legros. Over 20 compa­ for example, has set up a tower factory in the former nies and organisations now belong to the cluster. steelworking town of Le Creusot. The company Céole, Photo: Bourgogne Développement based in a suburb of Dijon, also makes towers and has grown to a similar size as SIAG (see interview). All of this naturally also affects the political attitude to- nies. Over 20 companies, including planning firms, wards wind power. thus joined together last year to form a wind power cluster. “This cluster aims to improve the overall com- Wind power cluster set up munication within the wind power sector. The region- al council of Burgundy actively supports this coming Further companies, dealing with the manufacture of together,” explains Schuddinck. The founding meet- special cables or vibration dampers, or the transpor- ing of the wind power cluster in September 2010 was tation of heavy loads, work as suppliers and service chaired by the Burgundy Regional Council leader, providers to the wind power sector. Estimates now al- François Patriat, as well as Céole head Dominique ready put the number of jobs in Burgundy which are Legros, who has now also been head of the cluster linked to the sector at 1,000. This is requiring ever since its foundation. Recently, the Dijon Chamber of more coordination between the individual compa- Commerce and Industry also joined the cluster. Further projects are in the starting blocks

According to information from Schuddinck there are currently three new wind farm projects which are at a particularly advanced stage: “The most concrete project is the Joux-la-Ville wind farm in the départe- ment of Yonne.” The first of 27 turbines, each with 2.3 MW of rated capacity, are to enter operation as of the end of 2011. The first turbines of the Beine- Courgis-Venoy wind farm, which is also going to be in this part of Burgundy, are also to be started up as of the end of the year. The plan here is to have 12 tur- bines with 24 MW of power in total. The project Portes de la Côte-d’Or is to enter operation starting in 2012 – Eole-RES of Avignon has planned 27 turbines with 54 MW here. It is becoming clear that there is quite a lot of potential in the old homeland of the Dukes of Burgundy if you think at a scale of modern wind ­turbines. Martin Frey

Further information: Bourgogne Developpement: www.bourgognedeveloppement.com Burgundy Wind Cluster: www.wind4future.com Céole: www.ceole.com Eole RES: www.eoleres.com/fr Wind atlas Burgundy: www.cr-bourgogne. Manufacturing is carried out at the company Céole in two halls with a total floor fr/L-atlas-eolien-de-Bourgogne,684,2300 space of 10,000 m2. The factory site covers a total of 6.5 hectares. Photo: Céole

180 Sun & Wind Energy 3/2011 “It is very hard to find qualified personnel”

The company Céole manufactures towers in Burgundy and according to its own figures has a market share of approx. 15 % in France. SUN & WIND ENERGY spoke to company founder Dominique Legros about the economic upswing in Burgundy and the company’s plans for growth.

S&WE: Monsieur Legros, what do you think has led to the change in public opinion in Burgundy as far Dominique Legros, 56, is founder and head of the wind turbine manufacturer as wind power is concerned? Céole. Legros has been a metalworker for 30 years and initially made steel tanks Dominique Legros: Politicians have realised that we for the oil and chemicals industry at his family’s company. He has been inter­ can create a considerable number of jobs in the ested in renewable energies for about twelve years and decided to set up his own wind power sector alone. When I founded Céole four company which would solely concentrate on making towers. Legros is also active years ago, my company was the first new industrial as a delegate for Eastern France in the French wind power association France company to come to Dijon for ten years. Énergie Éolienne (FEE).

“Wind power can create a S&WE: At the moment you are supplying only to considerable number of jobs” Vestas – what efforts are you making to be able to supply other manufacturers as well? S&WE: The whole sector is suffering from a lack of Legros: We are in contact with all main manufactur- qualified personnel – it this the same for you? ers. Additionally we try and speak with French and Legros: Yes, indeed. Although we are on the Paris- international project developers, as implementation Lyon axis, it is hard to find qualified personnel. is easier, especially for foreign developers, if they When we find suitable people we must still train can show they have national suppliers. Although them for three to six months to teach them the pro­ there is no law in France which says that a certain cesses of metalworking, welding and coating, plus percentage must come from the home country, it the fitting of the towers with ladders and platforms. certainly does no harm for this to be the case either. In 2009 and 2010 we had an open day at which we were able to find several new employees. We now S&WE: Meanwhile, there is talk of an economic up- wish to repeat this every year in March. turn almost everywhere. Can you also feel this as a supplier? Legros: We already noticed the tension drop last Céole year over 2009. Projects were easier to finance again than during the financial crisis. The price of The tower construction company was founded in steel had also fallen to a normal level as a result of 2007 in Longvic, a suburb of Dijon. In 2010 the com- the crisis. Now it is rising again, but this won’t nega- pany had an annual capacity of up to 100 turbine tively affect our business. ­towers. Capacities are continuously being increased; The interview was conducted by Martin Frey. for 2012 the production is set to be 150, for 2013 and 2014 approx. 300 towers should be possible. On ­offer are towers in the 80 metre class as well as the 105 metre class. The sole customer so far is the ­Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas. Céole em- ployed 70 people in 2010 and plans to double the workforce by 2013. Further suppliers of wind turbine towers in France are SIAG in Le Creusot and Baudin Chateauneuf near Orleans. Company founder Dominique Legros wants Céole to become the largest wind turbine tower manufactur- er in France. He therefore set up his company in 2007 alongside the Burgundy canal. Meanwhile, manufac- turing is carried out in two halls with a total floor space of 10.000 m2 and the factory site covers a total of 6.5 hectares.

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