France to launch floating offshore wind tender this month-trade group

* France plans pioneer floating offshore wind pilot

* Tender announcement due in coming days, says trade group

* Tender could be for up to 120 MW, world's biggest

* Pilot could test new vertical-axis turbines

By Geert De Clercq

PARIS, July 7 (Reuters) - The French government plans to launch a pioneering tender for several pilot floating offshore wind farms this month, a French wind industry trade group said on Tuesday.

Matthieu Monnier, head of offshore wind at France Energie Eolienne (FEE) said he expected two to three floating turbine projects with capacities of 15 to 60 megawatts (MW) each, for a total capacity of maximum 100 to 120 MW.

The tender will be a major step in the development of floating offshore, a nascent industry with huge potential, as fixed-foundation offshore turbines are limited to coastal waters with maximum depths of around 50 metres.

Portugal and Norway have pioneered the new technology in the past few years with a single floating turbine each, and Portugal plans to build a 25 MW floating wind demonstration farm. Japan also has floating offshore wind projects.

"In Europe, the French offshore tender would be the first of this size," Monnier told Reuters.

FEE is not sure what level of feed-in tariff subsidies the government will offer for floating offshore, but FEE president Frederic Lanoe said this would logically be more than the approximately 200 euros per MW for fixed-foundation offshore.

The projects will also received a combined 150 million euro investment subsidy.

Four areas on French shores have already been identified for offshore wind development, including Leucate, Brescou and Fos-sur-Mer on the Riviera, which has year-round strong winds and where the Mediterranean sea floor slopes steeply. A fourth area is around the island of Ile de Groix, off southern Brittany.

"We expect the tender in coming days," Lanoe said, adding that FEE had had discussion with the government about the issue.

The French energy and environment ministry was not immediately available for comment. The government has talked about a possible launch in June.

The tender is expected to test several offshore wind technologies, possibly including turbines with a vertical rotor axis, as opposed to the horizontal axis common in most machines.

French firm Nenuphar - in partnership with EDF Energies Nouvelles, nuclear group Areva (Paris: FR0011027143 - news) and oil industry engineering group Technip (Swiss: TEC.SW - news) - is developing a 2 MW vertical-axis turbine.

Another French firm, Ideol, has developed a floating platform for offshore wind turbines which it says is competitive with bottom-fixed turbine foundations at depths from 35 meters.

In Portugal, utility EDP Renewables has run its prototype WindFloat turbine on a three-legged floating platform for several years.

In Norway, oil group Statoil (Xetra: 675213 - news) has pioneered a turbine mounted on a ballasted vertical steel cylinder that floats upright. It has plans to float several of the turbines in in Scotland. u (Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Andrew Callus)