The Welsh Government has granted TotalEnergies and Simply Blue Group consent for Wales’ first floating windfarm located 40km off the coast of Pembrokeshire. The windfarm will be become the largest of its kind in the UK.
Project Erebus will house 7 next-generation 14MW turbines on floating platforms, providing enough low carbon energy to power 93,000 homes. The project is part of the first phase of a 4 gigawatt renewable energy development in the Celtic Sea, enough power for 4 million homes. Future phases of the development could realise an additional 20 gigawatts of renewable energy.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said: “We are ambitious for the floating offshore wind sector in Wales – we believe it has the potential to deliver sustainable sources of energy into the future and it is also a once-in-a-generation opportunity to open up new markets for local suppliers and to create thousands of high-quality jobs in Wales.
The Erebus project has the potential to show the world that Wales and the Celtic Sea can deliver renewable energy alongside the sustainable management of our marine resources.”
Contract for Difference
Blue Gem Wind, the joint venture between TotalEnergies and Simply Blue Group is currently on target to begin operating the 100MW Erebus project in 2026. The consent now permits the two groups to bid the floating wind farm into the UK’s next Contract for Difference (CfD) round which was confirmed by the UK government to have a budget of over £1billion.
The budget was announced as part of the Chancellor’s Spring Budget this afternoon.
It is the largest budget to be set for a CfD allocation round and will help to ensure that the scheme continues to support delivery of the UK’s ambitious decarbonisation commitments.
CfDs are awarded in annual auctions where the lowest-priced bids are successful. The budget is set to help support effective competition in the auction, with the aim of delivering low-carbon electricity at low cost to the consumer and encouraging investment in emerging technologies.
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