Equinor and Naturgy are looking to develop a more than 200MW floating offshore wind project in Spain as part of a joint development agreement.
The FOWCA project will be located in the maritime area of eastern Gran Canaria and will be connect to the Barranco de Tirajana substation of Red Eléctrica Española.
It will be developed with semi-submersible floating platform technology that, among other advantages, allows the installation of structures farthest from the coast.
This offshore wind farm would reduce CO2 emissions equivalent to 350,000 cars per year and it could generate more than 2,500 jobs in all its phases, including direct, indirect and induced jobsn Naturgy said.
The partners are expected to present FOWCA to various fishermen’s associations and other social entities this week in order to establish a dialogue with them that will allow the project to be adapted to the needs of the island.
The first offshore wind auction in Spain is expected to take place in the Canary Islands which also have a shipyard industry that could transform its activity from oil platforms to platforms for marine renewable energies, the Spanish energy compnay added.
The delegate of Naturgy Renovables in the Canary Islands, Sergio Auffray, and the development director for Spain of Equinor, Javier Díez, will present today the alliance of the two energy companies in the framework of a business conference organized by the Canary Islands Maritime Cluster and the Federation Canarian Port Companies (FEDEPORT).
The ‘Roadmap for offshore wind power and energy in the sea’ approved by the Spanish Government provides for the development of up to 3GW of offshore wind power by 2030.
The government is also currently working on defining the Development Plans for the Maritime Space (POEM), which is the previous step to be able to develop capacity auctions.