RWE-backed floating wind pilot to start exporting electricity off northern Spain - Recharge
RWE-backed floating wind pilot to start exporting electricity off northern Spain | Recharge
A joint venture between Spain’s Saitec Offshore Technologies, German energy giant RWE and Japan’s Kansai Electric Power has completed the installation of a 2MW pilot of a new floating wind platform in open sea waters.
The joint venture, dubbed Windstaller Alliance, used the Normand Sapphire anchor handling tug supply vessel, to tow the DemoSATH platform 11 miles from the Spanish Port of Bilbao to a 85m deep BiMEP test site, located two miles offshore.
The hook-up operation involved connecting the six pre-laid mooring lines to the structure’s single-point mooring turret, according to a statement by Saitec.
Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: wind
Decades of government support for the development of wind energy has resulted in lower costs and a rapidly growing share of electricity generated by wind turbines. Wind in 2019 accounted for 7.3 percent of electrical generation, surpassing for the first time hydropower at 7.0 percent.