BW Ideol to Bid in French Floating Wind Tender

BW Ideol has entered into an agreement with an unnamed partner with whom it will bid to build a floating wind farm in France.

According to the company, BW Ideol formalised a partnership with “an undisclosed leading utility” during the first quarter of this year. The partners will submit a joint bid in France’s ongoing tender for a commercial floating offshore wind project off the south coast of Brittany. 

The tender, launched on 29 April, is looking for developers for a 270 MW commercial floating offshore wind farm, with the interested parties having until 1 July to express their interest in participating in the competitive dialogue procedure and submit their applications.

The floating wind auction is part of France’s national Multiannual Energy Programme (Programmation pluriannuelle de l’énergie) which is in the process of putting 8.75 GW of offshore wind capacity out to tender by 2028.

BW Ideol was established this March after the Norwegian oil & gas services provider BW Offshore’s bought into the floating wind technology developer Ideol. The company started trading on Euronext Growth Oslo stock exchange on 18 March.

The company aims to have a floating wind project portfolio of 10 GW by 2030, 1.5 GW of which it plans to have operational by that time.

After it was established, BW Ideol stated that it was ideally positioned to win upcoming floating wind tenders, driven by the proven and cost competitive floating technology from Ideol and BW Offshore’s competencies within offshore projects.

The company set out an overarching goal of becoming a long-term owner of floating wind assets, as well as a strategy that includes two approaches. One is co-development of projects in joint ventures, and the other is using its EPCI and maintenance capabilities with the possibility to become a lessor of floating wind assets.

Developing, building and operating floating wind farms in joint ventures is the main strategy for core markets where BW Ideol has a strong position, the company said in March. In markets with strong developers, BW Ideol plans to tap into BW Offshore’s FPSO experience and serve as an EPCI contractor for floaters and offer maintenance services, with a possibility for converting this into a leasing model.