Oil supermajor Total added to its growing presence in the floating wind market by taking a 20% slice of the pioneering Eolmed project that will be one of the first arrays deployed off France.

The French energy giant took the stake alongside developer Qair, formerly known as Quadran, which is leading the 30MW demonstrator to an expected start of operations in 2023. No financial terms were disclosed.

The move is Total’s third in the rapidly emerging floating wind sector, following on from a deal to develop a 2GW portfolio off South Korea with investment house Macquarie and the 96MW Erebus project off Wales, being built with Ireland's Simply Blue.

The oil & gas giant – which wants to underpin development of 35GW of renewables by 2025 – said in a strategy update last week that floating wind would be one of its key areas.

Total CEO Patrick Pouyanné said: “Frankly, the oil and gas companies are perfectly positioned on this one,” pointing to the extensive knowledge base on floating platforms within the oil supermajor and its supply chain.

Total also predicted that turbines as large as 20MW will be used to help drive down costs in the floating wind sector.

Qair this week said it plans to use three 10MW machines from MHI Vestas for Eolmed, the largest class of turbine specified in floating so far, mated to so-called damping pool platforms from French floating pioneer Ideol, moored in waters 18km off the coast of Gruissan in the Aude region.

Ideol CEO Paul de la Guérivière stated: “We are looking forward to collaborating with such powerhouses which both have explicitly expressed their global ambitions in terms of floating wind.

“Having access to Total’s solid offshore expertise and MHIV’s 10MW turbine will undoubtedly contribute to Ideol’s return on experience and overall efforts to reduce the cost of floating wind per MW installed.”

EolMed is one of a quartet of pilot projects planned by France in the Mediterranean and Atlantic in the first part of this decade to demonstrate various floating wind technologies, as part of the nation’s plans to seize a leadership role in the fast-emerging sector.

The four French pilot plants will enjoy a 20-year feed-in tariff of €240/MWh ($272/MWh), and will blaze a trail for planned large-scale deployment off France’s coasts via a series of tenders.

Under its latest national energy plan, the country’s overall offshore wind capacity is slated to rise to between 5.2GW and 6.2GW by 2028.As part of that proposal, 750MW of floating wind is scheduled to be auctioned off by the end of 2022 – 250MW next year in Brittany and another two zones of 250MW in the Mediterranean.

Recent market analysis from UK-based international low carbon advisory body the Carbon Trust calculates over 70GW of floating wind could be turning by 2040 – a near-1,000-fold expansion of the current global fleet – as international supply chains take shape to support development of commercial-scale projects around the world.

The forecast sees up to 10.7GW of floating wind globally by 2030, before the market mushrooms, with a total project value approaching €220bn ($250bn) by the end of next decade. DNV GL, in its latest Energy Transition Outlook, forecasts some 260GW of floating wind turning by 2050, but hinges on the sector reducing LCOE to €40-60/MWh from levels today that are three times that.

· Adds quote from Ideol CEO Paul de la Guérivière

Wind

Total floating wind spree on an upswell as oil giant buys into French array