Abu Dhabi-headquartered renewables investment group Plambeck Emirates has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Italian offshore contractor Saipem to build a 500MW floating wind farm in the Persian Gulf off Saudi Arabia.

Under the MoU, Saipem, which is currently fine-tuning a prototype of its Hexafloat design for a demonstrator off Ireland, will handle engineering, design, construction and installation of the entire development, with turbine OEM “come on board in a later stage” of the project.