In 2020, Ideol and BW Offshore began discussions to join forces and establish a new company to be a global leader in floating offshore wind and to accelerate its growth in the rapidly materializing floating offshore wind industry. This week, BW Ideol celebrates its first day of trading on Euronext Growth.

A successful listing process

The Private Placement attracted strong interest from leading domestic and international investors, including several specialist renewable energy investors, raising total gross proceeds of NOK 575 million.

The net proceeds from the Private Placement will predominantly be used to fund the development of the project pipeline, working capital requirements and for general corporate purposes.

Upon admission to trading on Euronext Growth, BW Offshore controls about 50% of the shares of the BW Ideol. As a result, BW Offshore will maintain a significant influence over matters requiring the approval of the board of directors or the shareholders. CEO of BW Offshore, Marco Beenen, has been appointed Chairperson of the BW Ideol Board of Directors, while Paul de la Guérivière, the founder and CEO of Ideol S.A., will take the role as CEO of BW Ideol.

Throughout the listing process, Carnegie AS and Nordea Bank Apb, filial i Norge have acted as advisors to BW Ideol. In addition, Advokatfirmaet Thommessen AS has acted as legal advisor to the company in connection with the admission to trading of the shares on Euronext Growth.

Building a major force in floating offshore wind

BW Ideol is a leading provider of floating foundations to the offshore wind industry, leveraging its patented technology, with more than 10 years of experience from design, engineering and development of floating offshore wind projects from conception to installation. BW Offshore brings an extensive experience in executing multi-billion-dollar scale projects focused on offshore oil & gas production systems, supported by the wider BW Group's platform of competence and experience across the maritime sector.

The company aims to become a global leading fully integrated long-term floating wind assets owner through clear strategic targets; growth as a technology and EPC services provider, expanding and maturing a significant portfolio of development projects and becoming a long-term asset owner and operator.

The company’s vision is to be a global leader in the production of renewable energy from floating wind assets, and own and deliver market leading floating wind foundations at attractive cost. This vision is supported by three major trends:

• The need for renewable energy to solve the climate change emergency
• The key role that offshore wind has to play in this energy transition supported by its price competitiveness and its ability to deliver a large number of GW
• The unique advantages of floating wind to unlock some of the current restrictions limiting a global deployment of offshore wind

Market leading patented floater technology

BW Ideol’s core technology is its patented state-of-the-art floating foundation solution for the floating wind industry known as the "Damping Pool". The square-shaped floater comprises a central opening with specific hydrodynamic properties used for optimising the foundation stability. As such, the water entrapped in this central opening counteracts the waves induced floater motions. This solution can be implemented, without any major modification, with “standard” offshore wind turbines, and as such can take advantage of the extensive experience gained in these technologies. The design of the foundation is able to cope with a large spectrum of meteocean conditions, as proven by its current demonstrators.

The floater technology can be deployed at any water depth above 30-meter, independently from any seabed conditions, and can accommodate wind turbines of all capacity.

BW Ideol has already installed two full-scale demonstrators based on its patented floater design in France and Japan and is currently building up a sizeable pipeline of projects in Japan, Europe and the US.

KeyFacts Energy Industry Directory: BW Offshore