Giants of the sea: A huge year for Offshore Wind

This Global Wind Day, we’re celebrating all the amazing progress that’s been made in the field of wind energy.

Whilst there are of course huge challenges in front of us when it comes to addressing the transition to sustainable energy, it’s also an incredibly exciting time. Bigger and more ambitious projects are being developed every day, and the technology driving them continues to improve rapidly.

With this in mind, we thought today would be a good excuse to take a closer look at one area of the industry in particular: offshore wind.

Offshore isn’t the only area we at BayWa r.e. have an interest in. Across the sector, we develop projects across offshore, onshore, and hybrid. Some of the onshore farms we’ve built are trailblazing projects, like Lyngs?sa, the largest wind farm in Europe, and Fürstkogel, the highest in the Austrian Alps, sitting at an incredible 1,400m above sea level.

But, more recently, it’s the offshore wind area of our business that has proved most exciting. That’s because we’ve been able to enjoy some great success in signing new deals all over the world.

In September last year, we were delighted to be shortlisted for the first commercial-scale floating wind farm in Europe. The project, which will have a capacity of 250MW, will be situated south of Brittany, France, and is being conducted in partnership with Belgian offshore wind developer Elicio.

Then, in November, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Ulsan City in South Korea for the development of floating offshore wind projects off the city's coast. This development marked a big milestone for our ambitions in this sector.

At the time, our CEO, Matthias Taft, said:

“We respect the commitment of Ulsan City to helping drive forward South Korea’s climate goals, while also realising the benefits renewable energy projects can bring to local industries and communities.

We now look forward to progressing our partnership with Ulsan City and the local community to deliver the project in the best way possible.”

Finally, in January of this year, we obtained the rights for a huge 1GW floating offshore wind farm off the northeast coast of Scotland. This ambitious project is conducted as part of the Floating Energy Allyance, a partnership between BayWa r.e., Elicio, and floating wind technology developer BW Ideol.

We will build the project in the NE8 development area designated in the Scottish Government’s Sectoral Marine Plan for Offshore Wind.

When the news was released, BayWa r.e. UK managing director Gordon MacDougall said:

“The level of competition demonstrates the quality of our submission and the confidence that has been placed in BayWa Re and our partners. We now look forward to delivering this exciting project together.”

Overall we have more than 3.5GW in wind under management worldwide and a pipeline of onshore and offshore wind projects in excess ot 10GW - and it’s growing all the time. That’s because we believe offshore wind will play a vital and central role in the fight against climate change, which is why we aim to continue investing in it in future.