Schneider Electric has been selected as a preferred supplier by Areva to provide power equipment for the offshore wind power projects in France.

Schneider Electric will supply transformers and circuit breakers for Areva’s wind farms, including the 500MW Saint Brieuc offshore wind farm and the current tenders for offshore wind farms at Le Tréport off the coast of Haute-Normandie and the islands of Yeu and Noirmoutier in Pays de la Loire.

The company will manufacture the equipment at two of its French industrial sites, located near Metz and Grenoble.

AREVA Renewables CEO Louis-François Durret said, “This agreement with Schneider Electric further underscores our commitment to developing a complete industrial sector in France, providing job creation opportunities and harnessing our local expertise.”

In July 2011, France launched the first round of a tender process for installing 3GW of offshore wind capacity, which involved the construction of around 600 wind turbines by 2018.

In April 2012, Iberdrola-Eole-RES consortium was selected by the France Government to develop the 500MW (100 5MW turbines) Saint Brieuc offshore wind farm in the bay of Saint Brieuc off the coast of Brittany.

Areva was selected by the Iberdrola-Eole-RES consortium to supply 100 of its M5000 wind turbines and provide maintenance services. The company will establish two facilitates at Le Havre, one to manufacture turbines and the other for blades.

The Saint Brieuc offshore wind farm is scheduled to come online between 2017 and 2019, and will generate enough electricity to power a town of around 650,000 inhabitants.