Oslo-listed floating wind tech developer BW Ideol has partnered up with EDF Renewables, and Maple Power, to cooperate on the design of the technical solution for the floating foundations in the context of France’s first commercial-scale floating wind tender.
The French government has announced today that Eoliennes Flottantes Bretagne Grand Large, a company owned by EDF Renewables and Maple Power, has been selected to participate in the tender process. Maple Power is a joint venture between CPP Investments and Enbridge Inc.
BW Ideol is a company created earlier this year after FPSO firm BW Offshore announced its investment into floating wind company Ideol, a provider of floating foundations for offshore wind with more than 10 years of experience in engineering and supporting floating offshore wind projects from conception to installation.
Commenting on the new partnership, Paul de la Guérivière, CEO of BW Ideol, said: “Being chosen by leading offshore wind developers such as EDF Renewables and Maple Power, who have strong experience in the French offshore wind market, is a great satisfaction for our teams. This will be the world’s first fully competitive floating commercial-scale tender. The early selection of the technology allows the partners to optimize the project competitiveness while leveraging on BW Ideol’s unique floating wind track record in France and abroad.”
The offshore floating wind project will be located off the coast of South Brittany with a capacity of up to 270 MW. This tender is part of France’s national Multiannual Energy Programme (Programmation Pluriannuelle de l’Energie) aiming at putting 8.75 GW of offshore wind capacity out to tender by 2028.
In a separate statement on Thursday, Swedish firm Vattenfall said it had, with its partners wpd and BlueFloat Energy, prequalified for the upcoming floating offshore wind tender off the coast of South Brittany in France, too.
Floating wind is a relatively new industry, with a little over 100MW of installed capacity installed today. However, according to World Energy Reports, the floating wind installed capacity will reach between 8 to 10 GW by the end of this decade, and next decade WER expects to see more than 60GW of floating wind farms commissioned.