The Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) of Spain has published a roadmap for the construction of up to 3 GW of floating offshore wind by 2030. Over the next decade, Spain plans to build 1-3 GW of floating offshore wind and up to 60 MW of pre-commercial wave tidal and other sustainable marine energy.
These increased installed capacity targets contribute significantly to the goals of the European Commission’s Marine Renewable Energy Strategy, which calls for the deployment of 7 GW of floating wind and 1 GW of other marine energy sources by the end of the decade. Spain has one of the world’s largest onshore wind fleets, but its coastal waters are too deep to allow for the construction of turbines that have enabled for higher wind speeds and more area to be exploited offshore in the United Kingdom and other nations.
Spain would provide up to $236 million for research and development in acknowledgment of the greater cost of creating floating wind farms compared to fixed wind farms, which cannot be utilised in seas deeper than 50 metres. Nationally, the ministry stated that port infrastructure would require 500 million to 1 billion euros in investment to enable these kinds of projects.
Iberdrola, the Spanish wind energy company, has stated that if it receives funding from Europe’s coronavirus recovery fund, it will invest 1 billion euros in a floating wind farm in Spain. The European Union presently has around 12 GW of bottom-fixed offshore wind farms, with a goal of increasing this to at least 60 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050.