The Council of Ministers in Portugal has approved the development of the 25MW WindFloat Atlantic (WFA) floating wind farm project in Viana do Castelo.
With the approval from the government, the project can enter the offshore construction phase and will receive a license to connect to the national grid by 18 December, 2016, according to a statement by the Council of Ministers.
The WindFloat Atlantic (WFA) project, located 20 km off the coast of Northern Portugal, is planned to be operational in 2018 and will consist of 3 or 4 wind turbines on floating foundations.
The project is backed by a consortium of energy and industrial players including EDP Renewables, Trust Wind (a 50/50 JV between Engie and Marubeni), Chiyoda Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation and Repsol.
The consortium will use the WindFloat technology, a semi-submersible foundation developed by Principle Power, Inc. This technology was already implemented in a first of its kind prototype called WindFloat 1 near Póvoa do Varzim.
The recently dismantled 2MW prototype had produced more than 17GWh of electricity since its commissioning in 2011.
Its results were key for the creation of the consortium and the launch of WFA, the aim of which is to demonstrate the economic potential and reliability of this technology, advancing it further in the path towards commercialization, EDPR stated in a press release.
WFA will benefit from the support of the European Commission, through the NER 300 program, and the support of the Portuguese government through the Portuguese Carbon Fund. It was also selected for the InnovFin program by the European Investment Bank.