TotalEnergies has sold its minority stake in the 3GW Attentive Energy offshore wind project to Corio Generation, an offshore wind developer, and Rise Light & Power, a New York-based electricity producer.
The French oil and gas giant has sold 27.7% and 16.3% stakes in the project to Corio and Rise respectively, for a total of $420m (€395m). The remaining 56% stake will be held by TotalEnergies.
TotalEnergies will serve as the operator of the offshore wind project, which will supply clean electricity to New York. With a total energy output of more than 3GW, it will be located 54 miles (86.9km) offshore New York State and 42 miles (67.5km) offshore New Jersey.
Rise will manage the Attentive project’s interconnection to its 2GW Ravenswood generating station in New York City, and Corio will leverage its experience as an offshore wind developer.
Rise plans to retire the gas-fired generators at the power generating station, which will be converted into a green energy hub and serve as a base for the wind farm’s operations and maintenance activities.
In the first half of 2023, Rise submitted a proposal to repower the Ravenswood power plant with clean power from offshore wind. The proposal set out a path to this objective by acquiring a stake in an offshore wind project.
TotalEnergies renewables senior vice-president Vincent Stoquart stated: “TotalEnergies is delighted to partner with Corio and Rise to profitably develop a major offshore wind project that will provide greener electricity to the residents of New York and New Jersey.
“This partnership reinforces TotalEnergies’ capacity to actively develop its presence in the US renewables space where the company has a 25GW portfolio of projects, in operation or development, including 4GW in offshore wind.
“We are also happy to contribute, through the Attentive Energy project, to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in New York and New Jersey, and support the US government’s goal to develop 30GW of offshore wind in the country by 2030.”
The lease for the Attentive Energy project was won by TotalEnergies from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in February 2022 for $795m.
The project was initially developed by TotalEnergies and EnBW before EnBW sold its stake to Total, stating that it would focus on the European market.
The project will begin operations in 2028 and generate enough clean electricity to supply a million American households.