Construction kicks off at 30-MW EolMed floating wind park in France

The tie-up behind the 30-MW EolMed floating wind pilot project in the French Mediterranean said on Tuesday it is launching construction works and will seek to kick off power production by 2024.

The milestone was announced by France’s TotalEnergies SE (EPA:TTE) on Tuesday, a few days after a final investment decision (FID) on the demo scheme was taken. The energy group is partnering with French floating wind technology developer BW Ideol (OSE:BWIDL) and domestic renewable power producer Qair.

The EolMed offshore wind farm is planned to be installed 18 km off Gruissan, a town on the western part of the French south coast in Occitania region. It will use three 10-MW turbines mounted on steel floats made by local firms Matiere and Ponticelli. The demo plant will be connected to the network of transmission system operator RTE via a subsea cable.

BW Ideol and Qair have been partnering since 2016 and the early stages of winning a French government call for the project. TotalEnergies joined in 2020 by purchasing a 20% interest and BW Ideol acquired a 5% stake late last year.

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