Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised project company Eolmed, whose main shareholders are Qair Marine, TotalEnergies Renewables and BW Ideol, on the structuring and negotiation of the non-recourse financing of the 30 MW Eolmed floating offshore wind farm located off the French Mediterranean coast near Gruissan. This is one of the first four pilot floating offshore wind farms under development in France.
Developed by Qair Marine and including three Vestas turbines, its construction will start by the end of 2022. The debt financing is made available by La Banque Postale, Bpifrance and BPCE Energeco as commercial lenders, the European Investment Bank and the French Environment and Energy Management Agency ADEME.
Qair Marine is an independent producer of renewable energy (wind, solar, hydroelectric and green hydrogen) active for 30+ years, with 350 employees in 16 countries.
TotalEnergies is a multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924 and one of the seven “supermajor” oil companies. Its businesses cover the entire oil and gas chain, as well as renewables and electricity.
BW Ideol is market leader with over 10 years of experience designing, operating and developing floating wind projects.
The WFW Paris team assisting Eolmed was led by Finance Partner Laurence Martinez-Bellet assisted by Associates Julie Michelangeli, Léna Le Fahler and Sophie Rivallain.
WFW Paris also recently advised the project company on a second floating offshore wind farm off the French Mediterranean coast, the 30 MW Les Eoliennes Flottantes du Golfe du Lion project being developed by Ocean Winds.
