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Today, Bourbon Subsea Services and RWE Renewables France announced that they had signed a partnership agreement in order to jointly bid on the Mediterranean floating offshore wind auction. The partners applied to be eligible bidders in the A06 tender. An announcement from the French government will follow within the next few weeks. Two sites will be built for floating offshore wind under A06. Each site has a capacity of 250 megawatts (MW) and potential extensions to increase that number to 1.5 gigawatts.
Pierre Peysson is Director Offshore France for RWE Renewables France. He stated “Our partnership Bourbon Subsea Services (a market leader in floating offshore wind farms) supports RWE’s ambition to expand our floating offshore wind portfolio throughout the French Mediterranean. We look forward to combining our strengths and expertise to work with BOURBON in order to promote the floating offshore wind industry, along with the communities with which we are both active.”
“We are proud of our track record in installing pilot farms and prototype floating wind turbines. Our ambition is to actively contribute to the development of French industry. We are excited to learn more about our customers’ needs and how they face the industrial challenges of large-scale floating wind turbine deployments by partnering with RWE,” said Patrick Belenfant, CEO Bourbon Subsea Services.
Bourbon Subsea Services will be bringing complementary expertise and capabilities to the partnership, while RWE will ensure continuity in the employment of local resources and industry.
RWE is a leader in renewables. It has a history of more than 20 years in the development, construction, and operation of offshore wind farms around the world. RWE is committed to using all of its French experience to help develop a local and national industry that creates highly-skilled jobs. RWE Renewables France, its subsidiary, has been approved to participate in the forthcoming offshore wind tenders La Manche and Brittany South. RWE currently has 18 offshore wind farms with a total capacity around 3GW (RWE pro rata share) and is currently developing and building some of the most advanced offshore wind farm in the world. RWE is currently building the 342 megawatt Kaskasi offshore the German island Heligoland, and the 1.4 gigawatt Sofia offshore, which are the largest offshore wind farms anywhere in the world. In development are more than 10 gigawatts in secured capacity.
Floating offshore opens up the possibility to deploy offshore wind projects in deeper waters, such as those found in France and the Mediterranean Sea. This allows us to harness the full potential of renewable energy generation. RWE, along with its partners, is moving forward with three prominent floating offshore wind demonstration sites in Norway (in operation), Spain, and the USA (in development), each built on different concepts. RWE is also eligible to participate in the A04 “La Manche”, an offshore auction, together with Total Energies, as a partner on a site off Normandy’s coast, and A05 for the first French commercial floating offshore wind farm off the coast of South Brittany.
