Ideol Secures EU Funds for Leadfloat Project

French floating offshore wind specialist Ideol has received a EUR 2.5 million grant from the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 – SME Instrument programme.

The EUR 2.5 million grant was awarded to the Leadfloat project.

This project has three main objectives: the mass production of Ideol’s floating foundation with a view to prepare commercial-scale wind farms of 500+ MW; the valorization of the results obtained by operating the Floatgen wind turbine installed off the French coast (studies, equipment) to optimize operation and maintenance costs; and the strengthening of commercial development in the most strategic markets, including the opening of a subsidiary in Japan.

This project follows the recent commissioning of the Floatgen wind turbine, the first operational unit of the technology patented by Ideol and France’s first offshore wind turbine and allows the 50 employees’ company to further accelerate its development at a time when the various global tenders for large-scale floating commercial farms are under preparation.

Paul de la Guérivière, Ideol’s CEO, said: “This grant demonstrates that our company is recognized as one of the jewels of the French and European cleantech industry. This financing is particularly difficult to obtain, since only 60 – including Ideol – of the 1200 candidate companies have been selected. A few months after raising €15 million from leading private investors, this announcement shows that our potential is clear for both public authorities and the private sector.”