Wind

Oil supermajor TotalEnergies-led UK floating wind flagship gets Bureau Veritas oversight

Certification body will provide 'all phase' project checks for the 100MW Erebus off Wales being developed by petrogiant's Blue Gem tie-up with Simply Blue

A WindFloat fitted with turbine sits quayside before tow-out to a project site
A WindFloat fitted with turbine sits quayside before tow-out to a project siteFoto: Principle Power
Blue Gem Wind – the floating wind joint venture between French oil giant TotalEnergies and Irish developer Simply Blue – has brought in certification body Bureau Veritas (BV) to provide project certification for the pioneering Erebus pilot in the Welsh Celtic Sea.

Under the deal, BV will give oversight to all phases of the 100MW deepwater project, from site condition assessment through to detailed design evaluation for all the components of the floating wind turbines, including the inter-array cables.

Paul Shrieve, BV Marine & Offshore’s vice president of global services, stated: “This new venture in the Celtic Sea… is essential in meeting the UK 2050 net zero target to mitigate global warming.

“Supporting new low carbon supply chain opportunities and creating long-term value for the region is at the core of our mission at BV. It is good to see we continue to grow our local engineering and certification capability here in the UK.”

Blue Gem hull and mooring manager Igor Maere added: “Achieving independent verification and certification is an essential part of developing Erebus and we are delighted to be working with BV on this important work scope.”

Being built some 45km off the Pembrokeshire coastline in waters depths down to 75 metres using Principle Power WindFloat semisub platforms – a concept anointed by BV with ‘approval in principle’ in 2016, Erebus is slated to be fully operational by 2026, powering 93,000 homes a year.

Blue Gem is also developing the 300MW Valorous floating wind farm off Wales.
Floating wind power’s global build-out this decade has been forecast by the Global Wind Energy Council to reach over 16GW – a figure given a boost this week with the award of offshore wind leases by the Scottish government in North Sea deep-water – though some analysts remain concerned outdated current government policy frameworks have the potential of limiting the sector to deploying as little as 5GW by 2030.
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Published 19 January 2022, 15:49Updated 19 January 2022, 15:50
TotalEnergiesSimply Blue EnergyWalesCeltic SeaUK