As part of a joint development agreement, Equinor and Naturgy hope to build a more than 200MW floating offshore wind project in Spain.
The Barranco de Tirajana substation of Red Eléctrica Espaola will be connected to the FOWCA project, which will be situated in the maritime region of eastern Gran Canaria.
It will be built using semi-submersible floating platform technology, which has a number of benefits including enabling the placement of buildings that are farthest from the coast.
According to Naturgy, this offshore wind farm may create more than 2,500 jobs across all of its phases, including direct, indirect, and induced jobs, and it would eliminate CO2 emissions by the same amount as 350,000 cars each year.
This week, the partners plan to introduce FOWCA to a number of fishermen’s groups and other social organisations in an effort to start a conversation with them and tailor the project to the requirements of the island.
The Canary Islands, which also have a shipbuilding sector, are expected to host Spain’s first offshore wind auction. This sector may transition from building oil platforms to building platforms for marine renewable energies, the Spanish energy company noted.
Sergio Auffray, a representative of Naturgy Renovables in the Canary Islands, and Javier Dez, Equinor’s development director for Spain, will discuss the partnership between the two energy companies today as part of a business conference hosted by the Federation Canarian Port Companies and the Canary Islands Maritime Cluster (FEDEPORT).
By 2030, up to 3GW of offshore wind power will be developed, according to the Spanish government’s “Roadmap for offshore wind power and energy in the sea.”
In order to create capacity auctions, the government must first define the Development Plans for the Maritime Space (POEM), which it is doing right now.
