News Release from BW Ideol

Wind Industry Profile of

BW Ideol

09/04/2020

Industry Leaders Sign Floating Offshore Wind Strategic Partnership and Develop New Product

IDEOL, an internationally recognized leader and pioneer in floating offshore wind, and BRIDONBEKAERT ROPES GROUP (BBRG), the world’s premier supplier of mission-critical advanced cables and ropes, have signed a strategic partnership aiming at developing a new industry-transforming synthetic mooring solution to meet the fast accelerating floating offshore wind market’s costreduction, capacity and lead-time expectations.

Image: Pixabay

This partnership will combine IDEOL’s pioneering implementation and unique return on experience of permanent synthetic mooring solutions on floating offshore wind turbines and BBRG’s extensive expertise in developing innovative mooring products while taking full advantage of BBRG’s historic presence and production capabilities in Scotland in light of the ScotWind upcoming lease tenders and future floating offshore wind farms off the coast of Scotland.

Paul de la Guérivière, CEO of IDEOL, stated that “ Mooring solutions and offshore installation have a significant impact on a project’s CAPEX and OPEX and it is imperative for IDEOL to leverage its pioneering efforts with synthetic mooring and further reduce the LCOE of floating wind. Collaborating with Bridon-Bekaert is another great example of IDEOL teaming up with internationally recognized industry leaders capable of providing local employment and offering local value creation. In light of our commitment to offer the highest level of local content in Scotland, we are particularly happy with this partnership.”

John Churchfield, CTO of Bridon-Bekaert Ropes Group, added that “Bridon-Bekaert has a long tradition of manufacturing both synthetic and steel mooring lines for the offshore oil and gas industry. Since our day 1 interaction with Ideol, we realized that applying existing oil & gas cable technology leads to unnecessary high system cost. Today, we are proud to be at a point where we can convert all our cumulated application insights into the development of a custom rope concept fit for the specific operating environment of floating wind. ”

As a reminder, IDEOL recently teamed up with Elicio, a leading offshore wind farm developer and operator in the Belgian North Sea, and BayWa r.e. a leading global renewable energy business, to submit proposals for the ScotWind tender launched by Crown Estate Scotland with the aim to maximize the local supply chain development in Scotland. The partnership between IDEOL and BBRG is a perfect illustration of such commitment, combining the development of a new product in partnership with the supply chain and building on existing manufacturing capacities in Scotland.