Italian oil and gas giant to collaborate with global wind and solar developer Mainstream Renewable Power (MRP) for an offshore wind campaign that will begin in the UK.
The Eni partnership will focus on clean energy projects in the UK, as well as Africa and Southeast Asia. The agreement will see Italian firm Eni and MRP collaborate to develop “large-scale renewable assets” in “high-growth markets”.
Luca Cosentino, Executive Vice President of Energy Solutions department in Eni said: “ We believe that this new partnership with Mainstream will bring additional value to our renewable business especially in the area of offshore wind.”
Andy Kinsella, Group Chief Executive at Mainstream said: “We are delighted to announce this co-operation agreement with Eni. Our joint participation in the UK’s ƶijϻ Round 4 will combine our leadership position, expertise and unrivaled track record in the global offshore wind sector, with Eni’s pre-eminence and experience in offshore energy infrastructure, its commitment to decarbonise the energy system, as well as its robust balance sheet, in what is a capital-intensive business.”
“Mainstream’s mission is to accelerate the global transition to renewable energy, and we believe the energy majors must play a fundamental role in effecting that change. As Europe moves towards Net Zero by 2050, offshore wind power will play the central role in decarbonization.”
Eni is developing renewable energies projects on a worldwide basis, both brownfield and greenfield, with the objective to install 1,6 GW of new solar, wind and storage capacity by 2022 and 5 GW by 2025.
Mainstream has developed, consented and brought to the ‘ready to build’ stage 35 percent of the UK’s 2020 offshore wind capacity; comprising the 3,000 MW Hornsea offshore wind farms (sold to Orsted in 2016 and currently the world’s largest offshore wind farm under construction), and the 450 MW Neart na Gaoithe (NNG) offshore wind farm in Scotland which it sold to EDF Renewables in 2018.
Mainstream is also developing the 800 MW Phu Cuong Soc Trang offshore wind farm in Vietnam and has prequalified for the 1,000 MW offshore wind tender in Gujarat, India. The company wholly-owns 1.3 GW of fully contracted wind and solar assets in Chile which are on track to reach commercial operation starting in 2021.