Representatives from EDF and the renewables arm of BayWa have urged the Spanish government to update the industry on its much-awaited offshore wind auction.
Aymeric Ducrocq of EDF Power Solutions said his company is currently “scouting and monitoring” offshore wind opportunities in Spain, but is waiting on Madrid to launch the country’s first ever offshore wind tender.
A Royal Decree was approved last September that sets out ambitions to deliver 3GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2030 and it had been hoped this would pave the way for the auction to be launched this first quarter, but the timing has slipped.
“Hopefully, the government will do it [launch the auction] and the market can start. We are getting ready,” Ducrocq told the Seanergy conference in Paris.
Speaking at the same event, BayWa r.e. offshore wind technical director Ricardo Rocha said his company is waiting to see “what comes out in the regulation”.
“We have onshore (wind) and solar in Spain, but in terms of offshore we will look at it but at the moment we don’t know.”
One company already active in the Spanish offshore sector with its 2MW DemoSATH platform project is Saitec.
David Carrascosa, chief operating officer at the company, told the Seanergy conference that the attractiveness of Spain as an offshore market is “going down”, primarily due to the lack of an industry framework.
“We have the sites and the supply chain and the conditions. But we lack political action at the moment,” he said.
He added the company is looking at new options in Asia and hinted that its next step could be to replicate a bigger floating offshore wind project in the shape of EDF’s recently commissioned 24MW Provence Grand Large off France.
Indeed, France, according to the Seanergy panel, remains one of the most attractive floating wind markets in Europe.
Ducrocq said the country’s Contracts for Difference system gives greater visibility to developers.
However, he called for stronger tender timelines and quicker decisions on development authorisations.
Rocha meanwhile reserved praise for the Italian sector for providing more freedom for developers to build at their “own pace”.