* Dunkirk tender seeks to relaunch offshore wind in France
* Nine parties to bid, Denmark's Orsted may join - sources
* Pricing will be key consideration in tender - sources
* But public opposition could derail planned projects
By Geert De Clercq
PARIS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A French wind power tender hasattracted interest from a slew of international energyheavyweights, signalling that France's offshore wind industrycould finally be taking off after years of missteps.
While Britain and Germany have already built 8,200 and 6,400megawatts (MW) of offshore wind capacity - enough to powermillions of homes - France does not have a single turbine in thewater.
In two previous French tenders, in 2012 and 2014, a bumper3,000 MW of capacity worth 11 billion euros ($12.4 billion) wasawarded, but the projects have not materialised because ofpublic opposition and contract wrangles.
Now, France is making a new start, auctioning a modest 600MW in the northern town of Dunkirk in a tender it hopes willfinally exploit some of the best offshore wind potential inEurope.
So far, investors appear to like the prospects.
Ten interested companies or consortia, including some ofEurope's leading offshore wind developers, have been shortlistedto submit bids by a March 15 deadline, although one has pulledout, according to three industry sources.
However, despite the investor interest, strong publicopposition to wind farms in France that has constrained thedevelopment of the industry for years remains a major obstacleand could yet derail the planned schemes.
The shortlist includes French power giants EDF, inpartnership with Germany's Innogy and Canada'sEnbridge; and Engie with Portugal's EDPR.
Among the foreign bidders are Norwegian oil major Equinor; Royal Dutch Shell with France's Quadran andBelgium's DEME; Swedish utility Vattenfall with French statebank CDC and German wind developer WPD; and Dutch utility Enecoin a consortium including Canada's Boralex.
"This tender will set the tone for the future of offshorewind in France," said Tako Keja, director of Moulins de Flandre,the Shell-Quadran-DEME consortium.
Those six parties have either made public their interest, orconfirmed to Reuters that they would bid.
Belgian firm Elicio, Belgian-French consortiumParkWind-Valeco and Belgian-Danish owned InControl will alsotake part in the tender, according to the industry sources.Dunkirk is close to Belgium, which already has 1,200 MW offshorecapacity.
Spain's Iberdrola was also shortlisted but hassince withdrawn, but Denmark's Orsted - Europe's topoffshore wind developer - was in talks to join one of theconsortia, one source said.
Iberdrola and Orsted declined to comment, as did the Frenchenergy regulator CRE, which is running the tender.
RENEWABLES LAGGARD
France has one of Europe's biggest coastlines as well asgood wind speeds, with about 40,000 square km of viable windfarm area on its Atlantic coast alone, European EnvironmentAgency data shows.
But with 75 percent of its electricity produced by nuclear,France has long been a laggard in renewable energy rollout andlacks big wind energy champions like Denmark's Vestasor German-Spanish firm Siemens Gamesa.
When the previous socialist government finally gave thego-ahead for offshore wind, it not only wanted to build turbinesbut thought it could use the tenders to kickstart an offshorewind export industry.
The criteria of the 2012 and 2014 tenders favouredFrench-based manufacturing of turbines, and the winning bids,awarded at prices way above market levels, duly selectedturbines made by French groups Areva and Alstom.
But seven years, later not a single one has been built inFrance as the projects have been blocked by public opposition,authorities have cut planned subsidies for budget reasons andAreva and Alstom's wind units have both been bought by foreignfirms - Siemens Gamesa and GE respectively.
Trying to move on from the two first tenders' problems,French President Emmanuel Macron's draft long-term energy plan,announced last month, targets relatively modest offshore windcapacity of 2,400 MW by 2023 and about 5,000 MW by 2028.
That is well below earlier targets and half what industrylobby group FEE recommended, but the government hopes that bycreating a level playing field and focusing on price, it will bethird time lucky.
'YELLOW VEST' PROTESTS
The criteria of the new Dunkirk tender, which have not beenmade public, do not require French-made turbines, according totwo industry sources involved in the bids, with the overridingemphasis placed on pricing.
Two sources close to the bids said financial criteria willhave an 80 percent weighting, of which 70 percent is purelyabout price and 10 percent based on the "robustness" of theoffers.
In initial talks with prospective bidders the state hadimposed a 60 to 100 euro per megawatt hour (MWh) range in aneffort to balance a competitive price with the need to inviteserious bidders.
In the final version it dropped that requirement, soconsortia can bid as low as they want, one source said.
The 10 percent "robustness" criteria evaluates to whatextent the French state can be certain that what is proposedwill effectively be executed on schedule and within budget.
The remaining 20 percent of the bid weighting is based onenvironmental and land use criteria, which will force developersto optimise turbine size and placement so as to get maximumpower production with minimal environmental impact.
The CRE regulator is set to recommend a winning bidder bymid April.
If the government accepts the recommendation, the tendercould be awarded before summer, if the "yellow vest" protestmovement that has rocked the country in recent months does notperturb the process.
"With Macron's reform plans shaken by the yellow vests, hemay be wary of announcing expensive renewable energy projects,"an official at one of the consortia said.
($1 = 0.8861 euros)
(Additional reporting by Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen; Writingby Geert De Clercq; Editing by Pravin Char)
