With two parks in the process of being built off its coast (Dieppe-Le Tréport and Fécamp), Seine-Maritime has established itself as the French department of offshore wind power. If we add that of Courseulles-sur-Mer (Calvados) and an assembly platform which will be based in Cherbourg (Manche), it is the whole of Normandy which is riding on the updrafts of a buoyant sector in terms of employment.
Because if the debate on the environmental impact of these XXL infrastructures is far from being closed and remedies exist, in particular on the part of Dieppe fishermen, the windfall they represent in terms of economic benefits leaves little doubt about their construction. The Fécamp wind farm and its 71 wind turbines were officially launched by EDF last Tuesday. Located between 13 and 22 km from the coast, it will have a capacity of 500 MW, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 770,000 people, which represents almost 60% of the population of the department.
That of Dieppe-Le Tréport, carried by Engie, should be of comparable power, even if it will only have 62 wind turbines. Siemens Gamesa was chosen for their maintenance, with around a hundred jobs related to maintenance at each of the two sites. "Our technicians will represent around half of this workforce," says one of the world leader in offshore wind power, with certain flying teams that will intervene rather in the summer when the weather conditions are more suitable for maintenance operations. "
Recruitments at the end of the year
More importantly, Siemens Gamesa has decided to anchor itself in the port of Le Havre by building a vast factory intended to manufacture the nacelles and the blades of the wind turbines of 5 of the 6 first parks of the first call for tenders of the French State. Its construction has also just started. With 750 key jobs. Recruitment should start at the end of 2020, beginning of 2021, with production scheduled for about twelve months later.
"Among these positions, more than half will be open to people who have no experience in wind power and whom we will train in-house," says Arnaud Gomel, HR Director France for the international group. They relate in particular to the manufacture and rectification of blades, two tasks that require a lot of manpower which we wish to recruit locally after a campaign of aptitude tests carried out in partnership with Pôle Emploi. "
Other technicians, more experienced in industrial mechanics, will also be hired, with the desire in the future to train them on site in connection with the wind campus of the Descartes-Maupassant high schools in Fécamp set up by the Normandy region. "There are obviously links between our company and these students, some of whom have already come on an internship with us, in Germany in particular," says one of Siemens Gamesa. The next promotions will no longer need to go that far.
