RWE, Bourbon team up for France floating wind auction

MARSEILLE, France— RWE Renewables France and Bourbon Subsea Services will bid jointly for France’s upcoming Mediterranean floating offshore wind auction.

They have applied to be chosen as eligible bidders for the A06 tender, under which two sites will be developed for floating offshore wind, each with a planned installed capacity of about 250 MW. Potential extensions could raise total capacity to 1.5 GW.

RWE has more than 20 years’ experience in developing, constructing and operating offshore wind farms worldwide. Subsidiary RWE Renewables France has qualified to participate in the offshore wind tenders La Manche (A04) and Brittany South (A05) off northern France.

RWE currently operates 18 offshore wind farms in five countries with a total capacity of about 3 GW, and the company is building the 342-MW Kaskasi project off the German island Heligoland and the 1.4-GW Sofia offshore wind farm.

In addition, the company is involved in three floating offshore wind demonstration projects in Norway (in operation), Spain (under construction) and the U.S. (under development), each based on different concepts.

Its partner for the A04 La Manche tender and in A05, France’s first commercial floating offshore wind project, is TotalEnergies.

Bourbon Subsea Services is a subsidiary of BOURBON, which has installed numerous semisubmersible floating wind turbines in Europe, and it is collaborating with RWE on the TetraSpar Demonstrator in Norway.