Shell joins second floating wind project of Simply Blue off Irish coast

Royal Dutch Shell Plc (AMS:RDSA) has agreed to acquire a 51% stake in the Western Star project offshore Ireland of Irish early-stage marine developer Simply Blue Group, the companies said today.

The joint venture will aim to develop a floating wind farm of up to 1.35 GW off the coast of Clare. It is planned to be developed in a phased manner, with an initial phase of 300 MW-450 MW, to be followed by 700 MW-900 MW. The first phase could feature turbines of between 15 MW and 18 MW, according to the announcement.

This is the second Irish offshore wind project on which the parties are joining forces after in early 2021 Shell agreed to take a 51% stake in the Emerald floating wind project off the south coast of Ireland. Simply Blue is also partnering on floating wind development with TotalEnergies (EPA:TTE).

Western Star will be co-developed by Simply Blue personnel and Shell floating wind experts. The project office will be based at Simply Blue Group’s headquarters in Cork.

In May, it was announced that global consulting and engineering company John Wood Group Plc (LON:WG) has been awarded a pre-FEED (front-end engineering design) contract in relation to the Western Star project.

Hessel de Jong, offshore wind general manager Europe at Shell, said the acquisition is in line with the group’s ambition to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and its aim to provide more renewable power to consumers and businesses.

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