TotalEnergies, Corio Generation, Qair join to bid on developing floating windfarms offshore France

A consortium of TotalEnergies, Corio Generation and Qair has been pre-selected by the French Directorate General for Energy and Climate (DGEC) to participate in a competitive tender to develop two floating windfarms in the Mediterranean Sea.

The two projects of about 250 MW each could supply enough clean energy to meet the annual electricity consumption of almost one million people.

Opportunity to develop an innovative value chain

The TotalEnergies, Corio Generation and Qair consortium is delighted with this new call for tenders, which will help to achieve France’s objective of 40 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2050.

The partners intend to support the development of a local Mediterranean industrial value chain for offshore wind power. To this end, the consortium plans to consult regional stakeholders, promote the local economy and ensure communities benefit from employment opportunities.

Combining complementary expertise

The consortium will leverage each company’s technical expertise, strong financial resource and extensive experience in the offshore wind sector:

• TotalEnergies, a multi-energy company, has expertise in offshore operations and maintenance through its historical activities. TotalEnergies is already developing offshore wind projects with a combined capacity of more than 11 GW, including more than 2 GW of floating projects in France, the United Kingdom and South Korea.
• Corio Generation,a global specialist offshore wind developer, has more than 20 GW of projects under development worldwide, including 2.5 GW in floating wind. Corio is a portfolio company, operating on a standalone basis, of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG).
• Qair, a European renewable energy producer, is a French pioneer in floating wind energy. With over 30 years of experience and a strong local presence in France, Qair operates 1 GW of assets and is developing a pipeline of 20 GW.

Proven cooperation in offshore wind

The consortium’s joint bid is based on a productive track-record and partnership history, including on the following projects:

• The 250 MW floating windfarm tender in France’s South Brittany region (Qair, TotalEnergies and Corio Generation),
• The 30 MWEolmed floating offshore wind pilot project in France (Qair and TotalEnergies)
• Over 2 GW of floating wind projects in South Korea (Corio and TotalEnergies)
• The 2 GW West of Orkney Windfarm project in Scotland (Corio and TotalEnergies)
• The 1.5 GW Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind project in the UK (Corio and TotalEnergies)

"After Brittany’s tender, we are delighted to renew our partnership with Qair and Corio to contribute to the development of floating wind in the Mediterranean and thus to the energy transition in France. If successful, we intend to mobilise our collective expertise to provide the best solutions to meet the technical, commercial and societal challenges of the project," said Olivier Terneaud, VP Offshore Wind at TotalEnergies.

“Corio Generation is delighted to combine forces with TotalEnergies and Qair. We truly believe France can become a world leader in the development of offshore wind. With its deep waters and industrial heritage, the Mediterranean is fantastically placed to benefit from floating wind technology, creating significant job and investment opportunities. Deploying new projects at scale will be critical to realizing the full potential of France’s wind resources and unlocking a significant clean, reliable and affordable source of electricity for generations to come,” said Jonathan Cole, CEO of Corio Generation.

“We are happy to bring once again our partners TotalEnergies and Corio together around their complementary expertise in the development, financing and construction of offshore wind projects.  In association with the Mediterranean territories, we will be keen to participate in the acceleration of the energy transition by developing locally the French floating offshore wind industry to come," said Jérôme Billerey, France Managing Director at Qair.