Greenalia has begun the process of developing four new offshore wind floating projects by filing its project & environmental planning applications in addition to the Gofio 50MW wind farm, which launched its permitting process earlier this year.
Dunas, Mojo, Cardon and Guanche are entirely independent projects with installed capacity of 50 MW each, located on the south-east coast of the island of Gran Canaria, in the vicinity of the Gofio offshore wind farm.
In fact, this is one of the areas with the highest wind resource in Europe, making the Canary Islands the perfect platform for the deployment of floating wind technology in Spain.
Every project will consist of four 12,5 MW offshore wind turbines at the top of the floating foundations, anchored to the seabed at depths between 61 and 92 meters. As in the case of Gofio wind farm, these new installations will be connected to the grid by means of submarine cables, which will conduct the energy generated by each wind farm individually.
In this way, Greenalia endorses its commitment to floating wind energy as one of the renewable energy sources that will contribute to green growth in Europe in the coming years, where 80 percent of offshore wind resources are located at a depth of more than 60 meters, but also worldwide, where 70 percent of offshore wind resources are also floating and, more importantly, where they are located.
These four new projects, together with Gofio, which began the licensing process earlier this year, mark a major increase in Greenalia’s portfolio of offshore wind projects, exceeding 250 MW of power in the Canary Islands.
As a result, a substantial reduction in energy costs (LCOE) is anticipated due to the introduction of economies of scale and thus creates considerable savings in public funds.
However, this positive impact for the Canary Islands is also twofold, as these projects will improve the process of decarbonization of energy in the Canary Islands by substituting a significant portion of the conventional highly polluting energy sources from the energy mix of the Canary Islands, resulting in environmental benefits; and, on the other hand, they will also contribute to the production of eligible energy sources.
Dunas, Mojo, Cardon and Guanche projects have a combined installed capacity of 200MW and will generate enough electricity to supply a population of more than 280,000 households, while preventing emissions of approximately 560,000 tons of CO2 per year.
During the growth, construction and operation phases, the projects will generate hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, contributing to the development of the green economy in the region.
With the deployment of these projects, the Canary Islands will become one of the world’s leading suppliers of offshore wind technology and it will also be possible to achieve the goal of generating 310 MW of offshore wind as set out in the 2015-2025 Canary Islands Strategic Energy Plan (the so-called EECan25).
Finally, these 250MW are expected to become the gateway to the global deployment of the floating wind sector and the historic opportunity for Spain to lead the most strategic rising energy sector today, which would also mark an unprecedented opportunity for the internationalization of its industry and a major boost to job growth.
