IberBlue submits plans for 1GW Andalusian floating offshore wind project
IberBlue submits plans for 1GW Andalusian floating offshore wind project | Windpower Monthly
The developer provided technical characteristics for the project in its IPD to Spain’s ecological transition ministry.
IberBlue is a joint venture specialising in floating wind farms to operate in the Iberian market, aiming to “position Spain and Portugal as leaders in this field of renewables”. It comprises Irish company Simply Blue Group, Spain’s Proes Consultores, the engineering division of Grupo Amper and renewable project developer FF New Energy Venture.
La Pinta will have an area of 316km2 and will be located 15-35km from the coast. The global investment required for the construction and maintenance of the wind farm will be more than €2.5 billion.
Julio Vera, stakeholder engagement and policy director at IberBlue Wind said: “Andalusia is a key area for offshore wind development in Spain. It has a great wind resource, good infrastructure and potential capacity to become a benchmark for this kind of project. The coasts of Granada and Almeria have favourable conditions for offshore wind farms, although it will be necessary to reinforce the electricity network in the surrounding area to take all the energy generated”.
The name La Pinta is in tribute to one of the three sailing ships used in Christopher Columbus’s trip to America. It is the second offshore wind farm IberBlue Wind is developing in Andalusia after the 990MW Nao Victoria Nao Victoria (990MW) Offshoreoff Cádiz and Málaga, Spain, Europe Click to see full details project off the coasts of Malaga and Cadiz.
IberBlue Wind has proposed three more projects in the region totalling nearly 2GW, including Portugal’s first offshore wind farm and the first cross-border wind projects off Spain and Portugal.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.