Plenitude and Simply Blue Group to develop offshore wind projects

Irish company Simply Blue Group has signed an agreement with Plenitude, a subsidiary of Italian energy firm Eni, to jointly develop floating offshore wind projects in Italy.

The collaboration will combine Plenitude's knowledge of the Italian energy market with Simply Blue Group's experience in developing floating wind projects.

Plenitude CEO Stefano Goberti said: "With this partnership, Plenitude expands its portfolio of floating wind projects in line with its target of reaching 15GW of renewable capacity by 2030 and reaffirms its commitment to creating an offshore wind supply chain in Italy.

"For Plenitude, offshore wind is a key contributor to the energy transition path and the achievement of our 2040 carbon neutrality targets to provide fully decarbonised energy to our customers."

Plans for the first two floating offshore wind projects, Messapia and Krimisa, have been submitted to the relevant authorities.

Messapia will be a 1.3GW project located around 30km from the Otranto coast. It will have the capacity to generate around 3.8TWh of clean energy a year.

Located roughly 45km from the coast of Crotone, the 1.1GW Krimisa project will be able to generate 3.5TWh of green electricity a year.

The two projects will collectively generate enough energy to power more than 2.5 million households while contributing to Italy's decarbonisation goals.

Plenitude and Simply Blue Group intend to work alongside local communities and other key industry players to develop advanced technological solutions and strengthen Italy's floating offshore wind supply chain.

Simply Blue Group CEO Sam Roch-Perks said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Plenitude and increasing our pipeline of global projects.

"Italy represents a big opportunity in floating offshore wind, and we look forward to combining our expertise and delivering innovative projects that will provide real solutions to the climate crisis."

Last month, Plenitude agreed to buy a 100% stake in renewable project developer and retailer PLT.