France's first offshore wind installation, the FloatGen floating prototype, has exported its first kWh to the electricity grid, developer Ideol reports.

The connection of the unit’s export cable and a final series of tests were carried out in recent days, with the EU-backed €25m ($29.2m) project becoming fully operational on 18 September.

“This is a highly symbolic step for the partners involved in this project. This wind turbine is the first operational unit of the floating foundation concept patented by Ideol and built in concrete by Bouygues Travaux Publics,” said Ideol.

“This announcement is also symbolic for France since FloatGen lays the foundation for an industrial offshore wind energy sector, and represents a unique opportunity to become the global leader in floating wind.”

Hook-up of the Ideol flagship, a first-of-a-kind concrete ‘damping pool’ platform topped with a 2MW Vestas V80 turbine, was carried out at the SEM-REV test site some 22km off Brittany during the summer.

FloatGen will supply electricity to 5,000 inhabitants on the west coast of France.

A second Ideol unit, manufactured from steel rather than concrete and topped with 3.2MW Aerodyn two-bladed turbine, is slated to soon be operational off Japan.

Beyond the French and Japanese prototypes, Ideol is partnering on the 24MW EolMed array slated to be installed in the Mediterranean in 2020/21, and its platform concept is in the frame for the world’s first commercial-scale floating wind plant, a “multi-hundred gigawatt” project off Japan being financed via a deal signed in May with global investment giant Macquarie.

Ideol is also working with contractor STX on a new-look floating substation designed to be compatible with both bottom-fixed and deeper-water wind farms in 30-metre-plus depths.

Floating wind power has mushroomed from a single experimental turbine installed off Norway in 2009 – Equinor’s 2.3MW Hywind demo unit that served as the basis for the world’s first array, the 30MW Hywind Scotland – into a sector now planning for over 12GW of installed capacity within the coming decade, with projects in the pipeline off Asia, Europe and the US, including California.