Iberdrola Faces French Probe Over Saint Brieuc Wind Farm Project
Iberdrola Faces French Probe Over Saint Brieuc Wind Farm Project
(Bloomberg) --
Spain’s Iberdrola SA is facing a probe in France over its offshore wind farm project in Brittany, Agence France-Presse reported on Saturday, citing a person it didn’t identify.
France’s Parquet National Financier has opened a preliminary probe over the conditions in which Ailes Marines, a subsidiary of the Bilbao-based energy company, won a tender in 2012 to construct the project off the Saint Brieuc coast, according to the report.
The probe follows a complaint by a local fishing lobbying group, which was sent to the PNF in late August.
The group’s lawyers underscored that Ailes Marines was chosen by the Ministers of Ecology and of Industry, while a competing project was preferred by the Commission de la Regulation de l’Energie. The choice to go with Ailes Marines was deemed irregular by France’s top administrative court in 2019, according to the lawyers.
A representative for Ailes Marines declined to comment, while spokespeople for the Parquet National Financier and Iberdrola didn’t immediately return requests for comment.
The project, Iberdrola’s fourth installation of its kind, is due to become operational in 2023.
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