A supplier has reportedly been appointed to supply anchors for the Eolmed, France’s biggest floating offshore wind energy project. Mooreast Holdings Ltd, a total mooring solutions specialist that primarily services the offshore oil and gas, marine and offshore renewable energy industries, will supply its proprietary anchors to the project.
The Asia’s only ultra-high power anchor manufacturer will work in partnership with Bourbon Offshore, a French company that operates in the field of surface and submarine maritime services, on oil, gas and wind farms. The latter will reportedly help provide transport and install Mooreast’s MA5S mooring drag anchors.
The anchors weigh up to 35 tonnes each and command a holding power of up to 1210 tonnes, underscoring its remarkable strength-to-weight ratio and efficiency. They will be manufactured at Mooreast’s yard located along 51 Shipyard Road, Singapore, where the group has also developed a range of anchors, chain stoppers and buoys to moor floating platforms.
Speaking on the new order Sim Koon Lam, Founder, Executive Director, CEO, and Deputy Chairman of Mooreast, said that it underscores the growing confidence that international players in the floating renewable industry have in the company. Lam also acknowledged the rigorous standards that the European floating wind energy sector is known for and expressed his pride that Mooreast can achieve market acceptance in this region.
The Mooreast’s MA5S mooring drag anchors, which will be used to moor three floating wind turbines, are expected to be delivered by October 2024.
About Eolmed, France’s biggest floating offshore wind energy project
Eolmed is one of three floating offshore wind farms that are being developed and constructed off the French Mediterranean coast. With a nameplate capacity of 30 MW, the project is the largest of the three groundbreaking floating offshore wind power plants and thus the largest of its kind in the country.
The facility will be developed and built more than 18 kilometres off the coast of Narbonne in the Aude department, Occitanie region, by EolMed, a partnership between Qair Energy, Totalenergies, and BW Ideol and its Damping Pool concrete floater and the wind turbine manufacturer MHI Vestas.
Qair is a European Independent Electricity Producer (IPP) that develops, owns, and operates multi-technology renewable energy projects. TotalEnergies on the other hand is a French multinational integrated energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity while BW Ideol is one of the world’s leading maritime groups in the tanker, gas, and offshore segments.
BW Ideol and Qair have cooperated on the project for approximately 8 years, since 2016, with Total joining the development consortium in 2020 as a 20% owner. BW Ideol has a 5% stake in the project while the rest is owned by Qair.
Comprising a total of three 10MW wind turbines, each mounted on BW Ideol’s patented floating steel foundations and connected to the Electricity Transmission Network (RTE) by an undersea cable, the Eolmed floating offshore wind energy project is set to be commissioned in 2025.
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