The wind farms, which will comprise some 1,200 wind turbines off the west coast of France, should generate 3.5% of the country’s energy output, the French ecology and industry ministries said in a joint statement. The farms will come online between 2015 and 2020.

The long-awaited tender is part of a wider government push to make renewable energy account for 23% of total energy production by 2020. It also comes as France’s government is under increasing pressure to reduce its dependence on nuclear power.

Atomic energy generates around 80% of France’s electricity needs, but following the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and with the 2012 presidential elections looming, political support for the energy source is beginning to waver.

“The aim is to create a French industry and gain a leadership position in the world,” French Ecology Minister Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet said in a statement. “We are calling for industrials to mobilize to create a subsidiary of excellence.”

French energy company GDF-Suez (GDZ.FR) said last week it is teaming up with construction and concession company Vinci SA (DG.FR) and nuclear technology group Areva SA (AREVA.FR) to bid in the French government tender for an offshore wind farm project.

The partnership is bidding for three of the five suitable areas identified by the French government, GDF-Suez said in a statement. The three areas, which could represent as much as 1,750 MW of offshore wind power capacity, are Dieppe-Le Treport, Courseulles-sur-Mer and Fecamp, all located in northern France.

On Friday, French Industry Minister Eric Besson announced a study would be conducted on France’s energy mix in 2050. One of the options being looked at is a full exit from nuclear energy by 2040. Speaking on French radio Mr. Besson said he personally felt nuclear energy should account for two thirds of France’s electricity output.

-By Max Colchester, Wall Street Journal

“Passenger traffic as well as bulk commodities such as coal and grains, oil and petrochemicals are not affected, apart from a few delays, but container traffic is seriously hit as different categories of workers strike on alternate days,” a UPF spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires.

“A meeting should be organized this week to resume negotiations,” the spokesman said.

Industrial action has completely or partly affected all French sea ports for several days over the last three weeks and has been paralyzing traffic during the weekends.

The worst hit ports are those where container traffic is heavy, including Le Havre, in the north, and Marseilles, in the south. The port of Dunkirk, in the north, is less disrupted.

Last Wednesday, the ports’ CGT labor union said strikes are set to continue as negotiations between unions and government over pension age and working conditions are stalled.

Port workers in France previously went on strike for several weeks in September and October. The Fos-Lavera oil terminal, the world’s third largest, was blocked for more than a month, contributing to a shortage of fuels across the country.

-Angeline Benoit, Dow Jones

In the words of the great John Bossie “Mother Nature and the Sea are extreme forces that must be respected at all times.” Here are some videos that illustrate the real power of the sea. This first clip is from off the coast of France, 2007.

This video was taken on the 7th of december 2007 in “Raz de Sein” at the western tip of France, in Brittany, on a (very) stormy day.

Those lighthouses isolated in the open sea are/were called “Hells” because of the roughness of living conditions inside these isolated buildings, frequently harassed by the elements.

The first one seen in the video is Ar Men (“The Rock” in Breton), one of the best known lighthouses because of its isolated situation and the considerable difficulties its construction has presented (14 years were needed to build it !!), and the danger in evacuating its personnel.
Considered as one of the most challenging workplaces by the community of lighthouse keepers, it has been named “The Hell of Hells”.
It has been automated in 1990.

Later we can see Tévennec, a little known lighthouse situated on the east side of the Sein Island. It had such bad luck in store for its guardians that it was suspected to be baleful, or even haunted. Indeed, during stormy weather, some keepers reported that gloomy screams could be heard. Recently a cave was found in the rock on which Tévennec was built, that may explain the weird noises heard by the keepers.
Since nobody wanted to live on this rock anymore, this lighthouse was automated way before the others, in 1910.

Nowadays, general automation makes human presence useless aboard these ocean look-out posts. In 2004, Kéréon, the Palace of the sea, the last lived-in open sea lighthouse, definitely closed its doors over its magnificent woodwork and its compass rose made in ebony and mahogany.

The previous automated lighthouses were : Armen (1990), la Jument (1991), les Pierres Noires (1992), le Four (1993), la Vieille (1995).

As nobody is here to scour, fix and maintain those lighthouses anymore, they are slowly detoriating. If nothing is done they may collapse in the coming years, like it happened to an auxiliary tower at La Vieille lighthouse during a storm on the 10th of April 2008.

This youtube video of some heavy seas off the coast of Japan in 2005 does a great job of showing the stress put on ships during rough weather.

A 300m long 4500TEU Containervessel 200 nm NE of Japan in the Tropical Cyklon Banjan 2005

Here is another amazing clip of some heavy seas off the coast of Iceland.

Fishing in Iceland over the winter time in 34m/s wind.

Air France Flight by nemesiscom

Brazilian Air Force and Navy assets are currently being deployed to the crash zone of Air France Flight 447 .

The BBC tells us:

Some oil, a plane seat and other items were sighted 650km (400 miles) north-east of Brazil’s Fernando de Noronha island, the Brazilian air force said.

The find can only be confirmed once the items are retrieved and the first navy boat is not due to arrive until Wednesday.

While it has yet to be confirmed that the debris is from the Airbus, it was spotted in a region of the ocean consistent with its flight path. The jet was heading from Brazil to Paris when it vanished early on Monday. 

The mini-subs on the Pourquoi Pas can work at depths of up to 6,000m and the area where the plane disappeared has maximum depths of 4,700m (19,700 ft), French naval experts told AFP news agency. 

France is also sending a research ship equipped with two mini-submarines to the search area.

Searchers now planned to focus their efforts on collecting the debris and trying to identify it, the spokesman said.

Col Amaral was also quoted by the Associated Press as saying a life jacket had been spotted amid the debris. ”The locations where the objects were found are towards the right of the point where the last signal of the plane was emitted,” he said. 

“That suggests that it might have tried to make a turn, maybe to return to Fernando de Noronha, but that is just a hypothesis.”

At least two cargo ships in the area have been asked to go where the debris was found and are expected to arrive soon, Brazilian officials said. Continue Reading…

With the Brazilian Navy not expected to arrive until late Wednesday and aircraft having limited ability to remain in the area with fuel Commercial Vessels in the area are enroute to the scene to initiate the recovery. 

gCaptain has confirmed that AMVER (Twitter account @AMVER), the voluntary global ship reporting system used worldwide by search and rescue authorities to arrange for assistance to persons in distress at sea, data has been used to help find and dispatch ships in the area of the crash.

Brazilian media confirms the names of the vessels providing assistance are the Lexa Maersk, Jo Cedar,UAL Texas, Stolt Inspiration with the farthest just 72 kilometers (45 miles) from the crash site.

Flight 447 Crash Maps

This map shows the general location of the crash site estimated to be about 410 miles (650 kilometers) beyond the Brazilian archipelago of Fernando de Noronha.

This is the official Air France drawing showing the flight path of Flight 447 overlaid with the location of the last radar contact.

This map, from the website SailWx.info, shows the VOS ships in the area including the Lexa Maersk, Jo Cedar and UAL Texas. 
Stay tuned for more information on the vessels providing assistance. 

For the latest developments on this story follow @AMVER and @gCaptain on Twitter.

BBC News tells us:

The French military are continuing to track a luxury yacht seized, with its crew, on Friday by Somali pirates.

There has been no contact with the Ponant since it was boarded. French officials said they wanted to avoid using force.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said: “Our priority is to protect the lives of the people on board.”

Somali coastal waters are among the world’s most hazardous, with more than 25 ships seized by pirates in 2007.

CNN tells us:

There were no passengers on board the 87-meter (288-foot), three-masted yacht when it was hijacked Friday, a foreign ministry spokesman said.

There were 30 crew members on board — about 20 of them French and the rest Ukrainian, the spokesman said.

France flew a helicopter over the yacht on Friday but has had no contact with anyone on board, the spokesman said.

The white yacht, named The Ponant, has 32 cabins and four decks. It has lounges, a bar, and a restaurant. The yacht sails on luxury cruises around the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Arabian Sea, according to its Web site.

Ship Specifics:

For more information view the full UN PDF , Live Piracy Map or a good video about piracy HERE.

UPDATE:

The La Ponant crew has been rescued, Lloyds List tells us:

SIX of the pirates who took over the French cruise ship Le Ponant have been arrested by French forces following the liberation of the vessel’s 30 crew members.

The head of the French army Général Jean-Louis Georgelin said that the pirates were arrested after having gone ashore about one hour after the freeing of the crew of the Le Ponant.

“We were able to track the pirates, which made it possible to intercept about half the commando through a helicopter action,” he said.

The operation was carried out with the authorisation of the Somali authorities, according to General Georgelin, who indicated that warning and interception shots were fired but said that there had been no direct firing on the pirates themselves.

The arrested pirates were being held off the Somali coast on the helicopter carrier, Jeanne d’Arc, according to a senior French navy spokesman. Continue Reading…

This post was written by John with Piracy map information provided by Richard of Bitterend. Did you know we accept article written by YOU?

The storm that battered much of Wales, the southern coast of England, and northern France yesterday left a new attraction on the beach of the French town of Les Sables d’Olonne early on Monday morning – a cargo ship.

The Dutch cargo ship Artemis was approaching the town’s port when a strong swell and high winds drove it onto the beach. No one was hurt in the grounding, and no pollution was caused.

Click here to view the embedded video.

More photos can be found HERE and HERE. Via Maritime Monday 102.

Last night the timber ship M/V Ice Prince became unstable and was abandoned in the English Channel. The Press Association tells us:

Attempts are to be made to take in tow a storm-hit cargo ship from which 20 crew were dramatically rescued in the Channel on Sunday night.

The Greek-registered Ice Prince is still listing heavily and drifting around 33 miles off the south Devon coast.

Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesman Fred Caygill said salvors were on the way to the abandoned vessel, and it was hoped they would try to take it in tow around mid-morning.

It has not been decided where the stricken ship will be taken, said Mr Caygill, adding: “It depends where we can get her in.”

He said the French tug Abeille Liberte was standing by the vessel, which still had a 40-degree list and was drifting east. Read More…

The BBC has video of the difficult rescue HERE.

It was a bad day for mariners world-wide as tradewinds reports of two more incidents:

• Bulker sinks off Taiwan, 12 missing
  
• Car Carrier aground off Norfolk