The Eolmed wind farm will feature of 10MW wind turbines mounted on steel floats and connected to the French Electricity Transmission Network (RTE) with help an underwater cable
TotalEnergies starts building Eolmed wind farm. (Credit: Levan Badzgaradze on Unsplash)
TotalEnergies has commenced the construction of the 30MW Eolmed floating offshore wind farm project, located more than 18km off the coast of Gruissan and Port la Nouvelle, in the Occitania region, France.
The company owns a 20% stake in the Eolmed project, alongside French floating wind technology developer BW Ideol and independent renewable electricity producer Qair, as operator.
The wind farm will feature of 10MW wind turbines mounted on steel floats and connected to the French Electricity Transmission Network (RTE) with help an underwater cable.
Eolmed is in line with the strategy of the Occitanie Region to relocate industrial production, and is expected to start production in 2024.
The project consortium has selected a joint venture (JV) between Matière and Ponticelli to produce the floats in Bagnac-sur-Célé (Lot) and Port-la-Nouvelle (Aude).
The JV will mobilise more than 600,000 man-hours of work across Occitania, benefitting from the port’s new infrastructure.
TotalEnergies offshore wind VP Olivier Terneaud said: “We are proud to contribute through Eolmed to France’s development in floating offshore wind, a very promising segment in which TotalEnergies notably brings its extensive experience in offshore projects.
“Together with our partners, we will mobilize our know-how and our best resources to meet the technological and industrial challenges of this project, which meets the dual objective of developing local content while providing renewable energy.”
The project is part of TotalEnergies’ strategy to develop floating wind energy, which provides access to sites further deep from the coast, and benefit from greater wind resources.
In addition to Eolmed, the company is participating in a tender in Brittany to develop a floating wind farm in the French waters of the Mediterranean Sea, in partnership with Green Investment Group and Qair.
It is also developing a portfolio of mor e than 2GW of floating offshore wind farm in South Korea, in partnership with Green Investment Group.
TotalEnergies has teamed up with Simply Blue Energy to develop the 96MW Erebus project in the Celtic Sea, the UK.
Furthermore, the company has formed a joint venture with Simply Blue Group, dubbed TotalEnergies SBE US, to contribute to the growth of floating wind in the US.