ENGIE and EDPR reveal Ocean Winds joint venture
By:
Tom Russell
21/07/2020
ENGIE
ENGIE and EDP Renováveis
have announced the creation of Ocean Winds (OW), a joint venture equally
controlled by both companies in the floating and fixed offshore wind energy
sector. The new company, headquartered in Madrid, will act as the exclusive
investment vehicle of both companies to capture offshore wind energy opportunities
worldwide.
OW has over 200 employees and expects to reach 300 towards the end of the
year. This team will represent over fifteen different nationalities, including
staff, almost a third of them women and 99% with fixed employment contracts.
Spyros Martinis, CEO of OW, explained: “OW has been created with the
intention of combining the experience and knowledge of two companies with
a successful track record in the generation of renewable energy under one
single firm, in order to take a leading position in the marine wind sector.
We share a vision for the key role of renewables in general, and offshore
in particular, in the new energy model. The creation of a company combining
the experience and resources of both will give us the chance to lead a
sector in this increasingly real and necessary transition.”
Grzegorz Gorski, COO of OW, added: “We are continuously monitoring
the evolution and regulation of multiple countries. We are seeking not
just to grow in the markets where we are already present, but also to explore
opportunities to add value in new countries.”
EDPR and ENGIE are combining their offshore wind assets and project pipeline
in OW, starting with a total of 1.5 GW under construction and 4.0 GW under
development, with the target of reaching 5 to 7 GW of projects in operation
or under construction and 5 to 10 GW under advanced development by 2025.
OW primarily targets markets in Europe, the United States and selected
geographies in Asia, from where most of the growth is expected to come.
The origin of the OW brand is no coincidence. When ENGIE and EDPR were
looking for a name for the new business they brought in a team of scientists
who could help to identify the sound of the wind in the Roman alphabet.
They developed a specific algorithm and equipment to transcribe into letters
the sound of the wind recorded offshore over a 48-hour period. The two
most commonly occurring letters were “O” and “W”, thus giving rise
to the name Ocean Winds.