Among other things, thanks to 447 million DKK in financing from EKF Denmark's Export Credit Agency, the floating offshore wind project Les Eoliennes Flottantes du Golfe du Lion (EFGL), which is located in the French part of the Mediterranean, approximately 16 km off the coast at Leucate, is now becoming a reality.
The project is the first in the field of floating offshore wind that EKF is involved in, EKF itself states in a press release.
- The fact that we can now also enter floating offshore wind, which has huge potential in places where you can't have ordinary offshore wind turbines, is an important step for EKF. We are also very proud to be a central player in this financing. Furthermore, it is an important project and a major step on the EU's path to cementing its leadership position in the green transition and the path to independence, so we are very happy to collaborate with Ocean Winds again, says Peter Boeskov, CCO at EKF.
The EFGL project consists of 30 MW distributed across three 10 MW Vestas turbines. The project uses the WindFloat technology (owned by Principal Power Inc.), which was first used in a single prototype version with a 2 MW Vestas turbine in Portugal in 2011 in the form of a single prototype floater, which later became "WindFloat Atlantic", a 25 MW wind farm that is still producing under the management of Ocean Winds. Most recently, the technology was used in Scotland in the world's largest floating wind project to date, namely 50MW, which also uses Vestas turbines.
Investigating the market
The underlying technical risks that may exist in a floating wind project have been in particular focus after EKF was invited to participate in the EFGL project two and a half years ago.
- With the knowledge that EKF has built up from this project, we are clearly in a strong position to support Danish turbine deliveries globally in relation to the expected wave of commercial scale projects of 250 MW and more in France and elsewhere, which are expected in the coming years, says Christian Lambert, vice president of the Global Wind department at EKF.
It is Ocean Winds, a Joint Venture between the French energy company, Engie, and the Spanish EDPR, that is behind the project. EKF already has a strong relationship with Ocean Winds, as EKF has previously financed two offshore projects with Ocean Winds as sponsor – Moray East, UK (950MW) and Seamade, Belgium (487MW).
Ocean Winds owns 80% of the project, while the remaining 20% is owned by the French state through the state-owned company Banque des Territoires (Groupe Caisse des Dépôts).
- We are very proud of the trust our partners have shown us, as well as the hard work our teams have done to achieve this result with the realization of this financing. Our EFGL project once again stands out as a reference point, not only in terms of technology, borrower relations and environmental protection, but also financing through innovative and non-recourse project financing, says Grzegorz Gorski, CCO of Ocean Winds.
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