BlueFloat on the block? | US investment giant said to eye exit from floating wind pacesetter
Quantum Capital Group fund hopes to net $500m from divestment from floating wind group, it is reported
Quantum, through its 547 Energy investment fund, has appointed Royal Bank of Canada as advisor to exit a company that has floating wind projects moving at different speeds in at least 10 different countries, with an estimated pipeline of 34GW that includes some fixed-bottom capacity too.
The Spanish publication said the divestment process is still in the early contact phase, with potential buyers including big energy companies such as Iberdrola and Equinor.
BlueFloat’s projects are most advanced most in the UK market, with 3.3GW of floating wind capacity in the pipeline. This includes three emanating from the ScotWind lease round that were bid under a partnership with Milan-based renewables developer Renantis .
The UK portfolio also includes two projects bid under the INTOG, a UK lease round geared toward derisking floating wind technology and supply chains, and decarbonising North Sea oil and gas production.
In BlueFloat's case, the Sinclair (99.5MW) and Scaraben (99.5MW) innovation projects are meant to form a 900MWW hub with one of the three ScotWind projects, called Broadshore. Exclusivity agreements were signed for both INTOG projects in April.
The rest of the BlueFloat-Renantis ScotWind portfolio is made up of the 1.2GW Bellrock project and the 1GW Stromar project, where Orsted is also a partner.
BlueFloat is also lined up to participating in France’s Mediterranean floating wind tender through a partnership with Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation and local developer Auko and has stated its interest in the country's AO6 lease round.
The company is advancing with environmental impact assessments for the Odra and Kalia floating wind projects in Italy, where the outlook for lease rounds just improved with the European Commission’s approval of national proposals for CfD-based offtake instruments.
BlueFloat is further preparing to present multiple projects in both Spain, partnering Eni’s renewables arm Plenitude and Spanish engineering company Ener and also in Portugal, where a local partnership is in place.
Beyond Europe, BlueFloat has indicated that it will participate in Taiwan’s so-called floating demo tender as a stepping stone to a larger second phase and is a eying the floating wind possibilities in a promised commercial leasing round.
Earlier-stage business development move are also taking place in New South Wales, Australia, Japan, New Zealand and Colombia.
BlueFloat declined to comment on the news reports and neither 547 Energy or Quantum Capital Group had provided clarification by the time of publishing.
Quantum’s investments are focused on the energy sector and related infrastructure, with more than $17bn under its management.
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