Equinor, RES and Green Giraffe have joined forces to form a partnership dedicated to developing floating offshore wind in France.
Oceole will evaluate and work towards submitting bids in upcoming floating offshore wind tenders to be held by the French government, which is targeting up to 6.8GW offshore wind by 2028.
Equinor senior vice president for business development in renewables Jens Okland said: “France has set an ambition of becoming among the top markets for floating offshore wind in the next decade.
“Together with RES and Green Giraffe, we are ready to contribute long term to the country’s ambitious offshore wind plans and develop what could potentially be the first commercial floating offshore wind farm in France.
“As Oceole, we have the industrial competence, technical and financial skills to develop projects where we can create value and capture the benefits of scale for this exciting technology.”
Equinor developed and operates the world’s first floating wind farm, the 30MW Hywind Scotland and is constructing the 88MW Hywind Tampen.
RES has experience in offshore wind project development, operation, and maintenance as well as support and engineering services.
In France, RES won the tender for the offshore wind project off the Bay of Saint-Brieuc in 2011.
The company will build on the experience from developing France’s first offshore wind project, which is fully consented and is currently under construction.
Green Giraffe is a specialist financial advisory firm focused on the renewable energy sector.