Wales’ first floating wind farm comes a step closer to fruition

Following a comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessment process, Blue Gem Wind has been granted a marine licence for a 96MW wind farm in the Celtic Sea about 45km South West of Pembrokeshire.  The scheme has been named Erebus after the famous ship built in Pembroke Dock

Blue Gem Wind is a collaboration between Simply Blue Energy, a Celtic Sea energy developer and TotalEnergies, one of the world’s largest energy companies, which was announced in March 2020. The Erebus project is described as a demonstration project which will ultimately lead to Valorous, a 300MW early-commercial project.

The seven turbines at Erebus, reaching up to 270m from the sea, will provide enough green energy for 89,488 homes per year. Valorous will many more turbines and will provide enough green energy for 279,652 homes per year.

The company say: ‘Our vision is to create a new low carbon offshore energy sector in the Celtic Sea that contributes to climate change targets, provides high skilled jobs, supply chain diversification and energy security. We would like to see the same positive impacts with floating wind on the West coast that fixed offshore wind is delivering for the East coast.’

Deep water windfarms are lucrative because almost 80% of the world’s wind resource is in water deeper than 60m and this site was chosen because it is believed there is up to 250 GW of wind resource in the Celtic Sea, with around 50GW realisable. A significant low carbon resource that has previously been unattainable because of the water depth.

David TC Davies, Secretary of State for Wales, said: ‘Wales has the potential to be a world leader in offshore wind energy, and floating technology is key to unlocking the full potential of our coastlines as it generates economic growth and highly-skilled jobs. The UK Government is investing in this sector which will help us achieve our net zero ambitions as well as playing an important role in providing secure sources of energy. This latest milestone for Blue Gem is a positive step forward for this expanding sector in Wales.’