RWE Renewables France and Bourbon Subsea Services will jointly bid for the Mediterranean floating offshore wind auction during the A06 tender process being started by France government in the coming weeks.
Under A06, two sites for floating offshore wind will be developed, each with a planned installed capacity of about 250 megawatts (MW), with potential extensions leading to a total capacity of 1.5 gigawatts (GW).
Pierre Peysson, Director Offshore France at RWE Renewables France: “Our partnership with Bourbon Subsea Services, a market leader in the installation of floating offshore wind farms, supports RWE’s ambition to grow our floating offshore wind portfolio in the French Mediterranean.”
“By signing this partnership with RWE, we are eager to better understand from the inside the needs of our customers and the industrial challenges necessary for the large-scale deployment of floating wind turbines,” says Patrick Belenfant, CEO of Bourbon Subsea Services.
RWE Renewables France has qualified to participate in the upcoming offshore wind tenders La Manche (A04) and Brittany South (A05).
RWE currently operates 18 offshore wind farms in five countries with a total capacity of around 3 GW (RWE pro-rata share), and is developing and constructing some of the world’s most advanced offshore wind farms.
RWE is constructing the 342-MW project Kaskasi off the German island Heligoland and its 1,4 gigawatt project Sofia, one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. More than 10 gigawatts of secured capacity are also under development.
Together with partners, RWE is forging ahead with three high-profile floating offshore wind demo projects in Norway (in operation), Spain (in construction) and the US (in development), each based on different concepts.
RWE has qualified to participate in the offshore auction A04 “La Manche” together with Total Energies as a partner for a site off the coast of Normandy and in A05, for the French first commercial floating offshore wind project, off the coast of South Brittany.
Bourbon Subsea Services is a subsidiary of BOURBON, a French leader in maritime services. Since 2011, BOURBON has installed most of the semi-submersible Floating Wind Turbines in Europe.
BOURBON has consolidated its leadership on the market by signing a three-floaters pilot farm EPCI contract in the Mediterranean sea. BOURBON has also managed the installation and start-up of the TetraSpar Demonstrator in Norway in collaboration with RWE.