The announcement comes a few weeks after the announcement by Atlantis of the creation of Atlantis Energy, a new internal division to expand its offerings into non-tidal stream project development. This initiative has immediately generated much interest, particularly in the floating offshore wind sector, from potential investors to developers and industrial partners.
The new partnership will seek to initiate the development of up to 1.5 GW of floating offshore wind capacity in the UK, the aim being to have a pre-commercial project of around 100 MW commissioned by 2021 in UK waters.
Under the terms of the agreement, Atlantis will lead on the review, selection and consenting of UK sites and in attracting third party funding. Ideol will design the technical concepts and be the exclusive provider for the floating foundation systems while supporting Atlantis in their project origination efforts.
The UK is poised to become one of the market leaders for floating wind projects, thanks to abundant offshore wind resources, government incentives and support frameworks combined with an extensive experience base in oil & gas, maritime and fixed offshore wind development. Atlantis and Ideol intend to deliver the pathfinder project that will catalyse a boom in future floating offshore wind development in the UK and structure a new UK industrial supply chain maximising local jobs creation given Ideol’s specific design in concrete.
The Cost Reduction Monitoring Framework (CRMF), delivered in January 2017 by ORE Catapult to the Offshore Wind Programme Board, shows that the cost of offshore wind energy has fallen by 32 percent since 2012. This means that offshore wind in the UK is ideally placed for a period of unprecedented growth, hindered only by access to sites with the strongest winds. Floating foundations will open up the best sites yet to be developed across the UK whilst offering a cost competitive alternative to fixed-bottom foundations, given the potential of foundation designs to adapt to the next generation of very large offshore turbine and the use of low-cost, readily available installation vessels. In addition, floating foundations generally offer environmental benefits compared with fixed-bottom designs due to less-invasive activity on the seabed during installation and the ability to return the site to its original status after decommissioning.
Potential development sites will be disclosed in future statements, however the unique features and benefits of Ideol’s foundation open vast new development opportunities in resource rich locations right across the United Kingdom while promoting and guaranteeing the highest levels of local content and employment.
“With two full-scale demonstrators currently under construction in France and in Japan, as well as a pre-commercial wind farm under permitting in the French Mediterranean, Ideol and its patented damping pool technology are at the forefront of a cost competitive and rapidly accelerating floating offshore wind industry” said Paul de la Guérivière, CEO of Ideol. “Our strategic goal is now focusing on the development of large commercial scale wind farm projects with several opportunities currently under review in and outside of Europe. We are very excited by our partnership with an ambitious organization such as Atlantis which has demonstrated its unique ability to develop innovative projects and to catalyse financing from strategic investors, in particular in a key market for Ideol such as the UK.”
Tim Cornelius, CEO of Atlantis, added that Ideol are a high quality, technically proficient, world leading technology and services company capable of delivering cost competitive floating offshore wind solutions to a market that is voracious in its appetite for large scale offshore wind development, optimising the cost of energy. Mr Cornelius described the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two companies as a significant step in the Atlantis diversification strategy, leveraging the company’s existing skill set accumulated during the progression of tidal portfolio.
For additional information:
