Bourbon kicks off pilot wind farm in France

Specialist teams from Bourbon Subsea Services have installed a Floating Electrical Hub (FEH) at a pilot floating wind farm, Eolmed, sited off Gruissan in the Mediterranean Sea. The FEH, seen as a ‘foundation stone’ for the project, is a structure that will be connected to three wind turbines at sea and by a cable to the shore.

The turbines are expected to produce more than 110 million kilowatt-hours when they start to operate in 2025, equivalent to the electricity requirements of about 50,000 people.

Preparations for the first stage of the project took more than a year and involved about 30 Bourbon personnel engaged in the design, manufacture, towing and installation of the FEH and its subsea mooring system. The Bourbon Liberty 222, an anchor handling tug supply vessel equipped with remotely operated vehicles, was deployed in the towing and installation procedures over a period of about two months.

Led by the renewable energy firm, QAIR, the Eolmed project is one of the first floating wind farm projects in the Mediterranean. It is intended to validate the technical reliability and business model of such installations in the Occitanie and PACA regions off the French south coast.

Bourbon Subsea Services CEO, Stephan Midenet, commented: “Contributing to the success of the Eolmed project is a one-off opportunity for Bourbon, leader in the installation of floating wind farms, to reaffirm its commitment to participate in the growth of the renewable energy industry.

“The project also demonstrates our ability to provide our energy clients with turnkey services mobilising all the skills and assets of the group in engineering, procurement, construction and installation mode,” he added. “We are now focused on preparing the second stage of this project in which Bourbon will install the field’s three wind turbines in 2025, and connect them to the electricity grid.”