Eni’s renewables business unit, Plenitude, has bought a stake in the Spanish floating wind technology developer, EnerOcean.
The deal is structured as a long-term partnership focused on the deployment of EnerOcean’s W2Power technology with two wind turbines mounted on the frame of the same floater.
Under the deal, Plenitude will contribute capital and expertise to the EnerOcean development program and will initially retain a 25% equity share in the Malaga-based firm established in 2007, which will continue to operate independently.
Eni, which has a long-term target of 15 GW of renewable installed capacity by 2030, said that the W2Power model yields one of the highest power-to-weight ratios and the lowest levelised cost of energy of any floating wind power technology. The innovative solution has completed testing at open sea at prototype level in Spanish waters, being, according to Plenitude, the first multi-turbine solution in the world to reach this level of maturity.
Floating solutions are widely seen as an effective way to spread the success of offshore wind to most countries across the world, noted Plenitude, indicating that this includes most of Southern Europe, where the coastline is characterised by deep waters.
