Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has released a roadmap for the development of up to 3GW of floating offshore wind by 2030.
Spain aims to install 1-3GW of floating offshore wind and up to 60MW of pre-commercial wave tidal and other clean marine energy over the next decade.
These new installed capacity targets represent a “significant contribution” to the objectives of the European Commission’s Marine Renewable Energy Strategy, which foresees reaching 7GW of floating wind and 1GW of other marine energy sources by the end of the decade.
The roadmap lays out four objectives to enable Spain to deliver on its targets.
The first is to establish Spain as a European point of reference for the design, scale-up and demonstration of new technologies, for existing platforms and for new prototypes.
At least €200m in public funds will be activated between 2021 and 2023 under the country’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR).
The second goal is to establish Spain as an “international benchmark” in industrial capability. This requires closer cooperation between the naval, steel as well as existing wind industry. The focus will be on creating a value chain and employment opportunities throughout the life cycle of floating wind and marine energy technologies, optimising logistics embedding circular economy approaches.
The third objective is to integrate sustainability as a central pillar of the development of offshore renewable energy sources.
This will be enabled in part by the Maritime Spatial Planning Plans, now in the public domain, plus monitoring and collecting data about the marine environment and facilitating conservation efforts.
The fourth goal is establishing an ordered approach to rolling our marine energy projects, especially offshore wind.
The procedure for awarding new projects may include prequalification stages and a competitive competition mechanism to identify the most appropriate ones in each case.
Port infrastructure requirements will also be evaluated.
The deadline for submitting comments to the roadmap is 6 August 2021.