The Welsh Government has granted consent for the country’s first floating offshore wind farm located 40 kilometres off the coast of Pembrokeshire.
Project Erebus will feature seven next-generation 14 MW turbines on floating platforms, providing enough renewable energy to power 93,000 homes.
Erebus is part of a first phase of a 4 GW renewable energy development in the Celtic Sea, enough power for four million homes.
“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”, said Mark Drakeford , First Minister of Wales.
Future phases of the development could realise an additional 20 GW of renewable energy, according to the Government.
Blue Gem Wind, a joint venture between TotalEnergies and Simply Blue Group, secured a marine license for the floating wind project in February 2023.
“In determining the marine license and the planning consents, the Welsh Government and our partners in Natural Resources Wales have enabled this project to move forward to apply for subsidy support from the UK Government”, said the First Minister.
TotalEnergies and Simply Blue Group established Blue Gem Wind in March 2020 to develop floating offshore wind projects in the Welsh waters of the Celtic Sea.
Shortly after, the partnership secured seabed rights to develop the 96 MW Erebus project, Wales’ first floating offshore wind farm. The second floating wind project being conducted by Blu Gem Wind in the Celtic Sea is the Valorous project , located some 50 kilometres South West of the Pembrokeshire coastline.