The general director of the Basque Energy Cluster has assured that for Basque companies “off shore (marine) is offering an opportunity, more than on shore (mills on land), which is a more mature market”.
The Spanish offshore wind power has asked the Government of Pedro Sánchez to urgently regulate offshore wind energy and call the first auction in the first quarter of 2023, because it believes that Spain can become an international leader in this energy.
The Wind Energy Association (AEE) celebrates today and tomorrow in Barakaldo the I Congress of this sector, in which 420 attendees from ten countries analyze the potential of this technology.
According to the president of AEE, Juan Diego Díaz, and the general director, Juan Virgilio Márquez, Spain already has two supports for this energy: “our factories have been exporting wind components to the wind farms in northern Europe for years, and we are the first developer of prototypes of floating technology (mills not anchored to the bottom) in the world”.
The third “leg” is missing, the commercial offshore wind market, which in Spain is non-existent, that is, it is not yet planned or where to install the farms. There is a roadmap approved by the Government of Spain a year ago that establishes an installed offshore wind power capacity of up to 3 Gigawatts (GW) as a goal for 2030.
Díaz explained that the sector has urged the Spanish Government to fulfill this promise of regulation, which includes the planning of the marine space, before the end of the year. After the regulation would come the next step: to convene, as planned in the first quarter of next year, the first wind power auction Marine.
According to the sector, for the auction to be successful, they would have to be awarded at the same time construction right (of the offshore wind farm) and of connection (to the electrical network on land)in addition to assigning the remuneration system to have guarantees of amortizing the investment.
The auction “will be the turning point in which investments and alliances will be formalized.” Will be large investments that will benefit various industries, because building these mills involves “many tons of steel, a lot of activity in shipyards and ports.”
In the world, in 2021, the record for offshore wind power installation has been broken: During the past year, 21,222 MW of offshore wind power have been installed, an increase of 59% compared to 2020. The countries where the most wind power has been installed navy have been China, UK, Denmark and Vietnam.
In the same presentation, José Ignacio Hormaeche, general director of the Cluster Vasco de Energía, which acts as host, commented that for Basque companies “off shore (marine) is offering an opportunity, more than on shore (mills on land ), which is a more mature market”.
Hormaeche added that for the Basque Country, where the seabed is very deep so windmills cannot be anchored, wind power with floating platforms is a challenge and a field in which Basque companies have been working on prototypes for years.
Source: Eitb
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