International oil supermajor Shell has finalised the take-over of French floating wind specialist Eolfi, completing one of the biggest strategic energy transition transactions of the year.
The acquisition is billed by Shell as “enhancing [the company’s] existing wind team … and [providing] an opportunity to leverage [Shell’s] offshore experience and project management expertise”.
“We believe the union of Eolfi’s expertise and portfolio with Shell’s resources and ability to scale-up will help make electricity a significant business for Shell,” Dorine Bosman, VP for offshore wind at Shell, said at the time of the take-over announcement in November.
Eolfi, which is staffed by 65 personnel in offices in France, has developed over 200 renewable energy projects in five countries.
Since 2012 it has focused on floating wind power, including leading one of four consortia building 25MW array projects slated to be online off France by 2021 , as well as having plans to develop 2.5GW off Taiwan, via a deal with Spain’s ACS Cobra.
Shell took an early interest in floating wind technology, in 2015 investing in Principle Power’s WindFloat concept. More recently it bought a controlling stake in Stiesdal Offshore Technologies’ innovative TetraSpar, which is set for prototype testing off Norway next year, and formed a joint development agreement with floating wind specialist CoensHexicon for a project off the city of Ulsan in South Korea.
