On Wednesday, French multinational energy giant TotalEnergies announced a joint venture with Simply Blue Group, an Irish-headquartered developer of offshore wind farms and other “blue economy” technologies, to unlock what the companies have hailed as “vast potential for floating offshore wind projects in the United States.”
In March 2021, the Biden Administration set a goal of 30 GW energy generation by U.S. offshore wind by 2030. TotalEnergies says deep waters off the coasts of California, Oregon, Hawaii, Gulf Coast, and the East Coast hold as much as 35 GW of development potential by 2040. Besides enabling access to these deep-water sites, the partners note that floating wind offers other advantages: winds are stronger and more stable away from the coast, allowing for higher energy yields, and the wind turbines themselves are out of view from the coast.
The global pipeline of floating offshore wind projects more than tripled in 2020 alone to exceed 25 GW, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, with floating wind costs decreasing rapidly. For the United States, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory reports some 60% of viable offshore wind resources can only be tapped using floating technologies.
“Our ambition is to install 100 gigawatts of global renewable power generation by 2030, part of which will come from floating offshore wind projects. We are eager to see this partnership with Simply Blue help our Company meet this goal,” said Stéphane Michel, President of Gas, Renewables and Power at TotalEnergies. “We are convinced of the large potential of floating offshore wind to provide U.S. coasts with renewable electricity, and are committed to contribute our extensive expertise in offshore projects to make it happen.”
“The future and next frontier of U.S. offshore wind is floating. This joint venture with TotalEnergies has everything we need to deliver floating offshore wind on America’s coasts,” Simply Blue CEO Sam Roch-Perks in a statement on the partnership. “Almost two-thirds of U.S. offshore wind resources are found in deeper waters that require floating wind platforms. TotalEnergies SBE US brings together the scale, expertise, and international track record to responsibly develop floating offshore wind power on all of America’s coasts.”
“Offshore wind has arrived. To bring its full benefits to market, we need to go big and go deep,” said Stephanie McClellan, Ph.D., Chief of Strategy & Policy at TotalEnergies SBE US and founder of its Special Initiative on Offshore Wind. “TotalEnergies SBE US will accelerate development of U.S. floating wind, and help states and the federal government meet their clean power goals.”
TotalEnergies currently has over 6 GW of offshore wind in development around the globe, of which over 40% is comprised of floating offshore wind including over 2 GW of floating wind projects in South Korea. Simply Blue Group has more than 3.2 GW of offshore wind in development off the coast of Ireland and the UK.
Additionally, TotalEnergies has a stated goal of achieving net zero by 2050, and is currently building a portfolio of activities in renewables and electricity that it says should account for up to 40 percent of its sales by 2050. As of year-end 2020, TotalEnergies’ gross power generation capacity worldwide was around 12 GW, including 7 GW of renewable energy. TotalEnergies will continue to expand this business to reach 35 GW of gross production capacity from renewable sources by 2025, and then 100 GW by 2030 with the objective of being among the world’s top 5 in renewable energies.
