UPDATE - France's 30-MW EolMed floating wind park to go live in mid-2024

The partnership behind the 30-MW EolMed floating wind pilot project in the French Mediterranean has used non-recourse debt arranged by the European Investment Bank that has enabled it to take a final investment decision (FID) on the project.

The financing has been provided by a consortium of lenders consisting of Banque Postale, BPCE Energeco and BPI France. Some support was also provided by national and local organisations and companies, the project partners said in an update on Monday. The FID was taken last week.

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. It will use three 10-MW turbines that are expected to be commissioned in the middle of 2024. The demo plant, initially intended to go live in 2023, will be connected to the network of transmission system operator RTE via a subsea cable.

The tie-up behind EolMed comprises French floating wind technology developer BW Ideol (OSE:BWIDL), domestic renewable power producer Qair and energy group TotalEnergies SE (EPA:TTE). 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.

BW Ideol is providing the technology and engineering services for the project.

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