Aker Offshore Wind Beefs Up Stake in Floating Wind Firm Principle Power

November 18, 2020

Illustration: Aker Offshore Wind

Norwegian offshore wind services firm Aker Offshore Wind has increased its stake in Principle Power, a company developing foundations for floating wind farms.

Aker Offshore Wind's stake in Principle Power will grow from around 20 percent to an expected 39 percent, after exercising an option to buy further shares in the floating wind technology company.

The transaction has a value of approximately NOK 180 million (around USD19,93 million). The acquisition of shares is funded by the proceeds from the private placement completed on November 16.

Astrid Skarheim Onsum, Chief Executive Officer of Aker Offshore Wind, a company focused on assets in deep waters, said: "Principle Power is established as the industry-leading provider of floating wind foundation technology, with more than 100MW of installed capacity by 2022.”

"We will actively work with Principle Power and the other shareholders to further develop technology and drive down costs across the value chain to ensure the most competitive offering globally,” she said.

Principle Power has an established track record from several years of offshore operations and 34,000 operating hours with its WindFloat foundation. 

It recently saw the installation of a 9.5 MW turbine in the Kincardine project in Scotland, the biggest floating wind turbine in the world to date. Three 8.4 MW WindFloat-supported turbines are also operating in the WindFloat Atlantic project off the coast of Portugal.

Floating offshore wind farms are a relatively nascent industry, however, according to forecasts in the Carbon Trust’s recent Floating Wind Joint Industry Projects report, an estimated 70GW of floating wind could be installed across the globe by 2040.