Transitioning international oil & gas contractor Saipem has seal the seal on a deal to buy the floating wind business of French marine renewables outfit Naval Energies.
The acquisition, originally announced last month, is designed to ramp-up the Italian’s role in the rapidly advancing sector, adding Naval Energies’ “engineering know-how, related intellectual property rights and integrated a dedicated team with expertise in modelling and simulation” to the Saipem offering.
“Saipem expands its technology portfolio and further strengthens its position in the market of offshore renewables, specifically floating wind, believing that innovation and sustainability are the key to achieving climate neutrality by 2050,” said the contractor.
Naval Energies has developed an advanced semisubmersible platform as a partner of the Groix & Belle-Île floating wind array being built off France by Shell-owned Eolfi and China General Nuclear.
Saipem has its own concept, the Hexafloat, which is in the frame for prototyping as part of the AFLOWT (Accelerating market uptake of Floating Offshore Wind Technology) project, off Ireland.
Naval Energies – under it former DCNS banner – was an early mover in the floating wind space, with a concept called the WinFlo which in 2013 it was planning to develop as 1MW design.
Floating wind power projects totalling more than 26GW are on track to be turning by 2035, according to latest figures from Quest FWE, with the fleet expected to grow “exponentially” as the first wave of utility-scale developments now taking shape internationally are boosted by transitioning oil companies and ever-improving economics
