Spain plans to develop between 1 GW and 3 GW of floating offshore wind capacity by 2030, according to the country’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge.
The goal is set out in The Roadmap for the Development of Offshore Wind and Marine Energies in Spain, which is now open to public consultation.
The public consultation will be open until 6 August.
The Roadmap also includes plans to develop between 40 MW and 60 MW of wave and tidal energy by 2030.
If implemented, the Roadmap would make Spain the powerhouse of floating wind, seeing that 3 GW of floating wind capacity would be over 40 per cent of the entire floating wind capacity at the European level, expected to reach 7 GW by 2030.
Spain also plans to set aside EUR 200 million between 2021 and 2023 for the advancement and development of offshore renewable energy technologies.
The ministry also pointed out that between EUR 500 million and EUR 1 billion investment into the port infrastructure would be needed in order to implement these goals.
Currently, several floating wind projects are in the development stage offshore Spain.
Most notably, Spain’s energy giant Iberdrola said earlier this year that the company is planning to invest over EUR 1 billion to develop a 300 MW floating wind farm offshore Spain.
The project is expected to spearhead the development of up to 2,000 MW of floating offshore wind projects identified by Iberdrola off the coasts of Galicia, Andalusia, and the Canary Islands.
Last month, the Madrid-based BlueFloat Energy revealed plans to build a 1 GW floating wind farm near the Gulf of Roses in Catalonia. The wind farm could be operational as early as 2026, the developer said.
Spain’s Greenalia is also planning on building up to four floating wind farms off Gran Canaria.
The Dunas, Mojo, Cardon, and Guanche wind farms are independent projects, each expected to have 50 MW of capacity, located offshore the Gran Canarian South-East coast.