November 09, 2020 – Boston, MA
EDP Renewables and ENGIE have combined their existing and planned offshore wind efforts to form a new company, Ocean Winds (OW), that is one of the largest “pure” offshore wind development enterprises in the world.
After launching OW in Europe, EDP Renewables and ENGIE are now unveiling the U.S. arm of this new company: OW North America.
“OW will be a major element in creating the new clean, sustainable, and prosperous economy that Americans are demanding and OW North America can help to build that future” said OW CEO Spyros Martinis, adding, “OW North America from Day One is in the business of developing and delivering real offshore wind projects.”
Regulators around the world, including U.S. authorities, have approved the merger of EDPR and ENGIE’s offshore wind businesses allowing OW to begin life with 5.5 GW of committed offshore assets 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 the middle of this decade.
OW North America starts its life in a strong position in the highly attractive US renewable energy market on both the East and West Coasts. OW North America is a 50 percent owner of Mayflower Wind, a company which was successful in a state-sponsored competive auction which resulted in contracts to deliver 804 Megawatts (MW) of offshore wind energy to the Massachusetts utilities and their customers by the middle of this decade. Mayflower Wind’s federal lease area, awarded in December 2018, has the potential to reach over 1600 MW. In addition, OW North America is a partner in the Redwood Coast floating offshore wind project, building on its experience developing floating projects in Europe, in particular Windfloat Atlantic – a fully operational floating offshore wind farm that is supplying clean affordable energy to the electricity customers of Portugal. OW will fill EDPR’s role in the Redwood Coast public-private consortium committed to developing an offshore wind project utilizing floating platform technology off the coast of Humboldt County in Northern California. The project’s customers will include consortium member Redwood Coast Energy Authority, a community choice aggregator established by local governments in Humboldt County.
