The director of the WindFloat Atlantic project, located off Viana do Castelo, said today that the growth of floating wind energy depends on the government’s decision to include this technology in upcoming renewable energy auctions.

There are environmental conditions in Portugal. Obviously, an important part is missing, related to regulatory conditions. In other countries, there are already examples of the desire for this to become another technology sector within renewables, Jose Pinheiro said.

According to the official, who was speaking to Lusa at the end of a boat visit to Europe’s first floating wind farm, installed 20 kilometers off Viana do Castelo, to celebrate a year of activity at that marine park, in Portugal, “no energy auction has been planned.” renewable”.

He added that Spain had recently completed a similar measure which gives “a good sign that regulation is about to become a reality”.

“The technology has been proven to work, with the largest commercially available wind turbines on the market, thus reaching technological maturity [Technology Readiness Level(TRL)]He stressed that it is logical to talk about the ambition to continue developing projects but now commercial projects in the country and abroad.

For the official, “there are very exciting terms for this auction” as it is an area with “a lot of potential to explore, with many international ‘players’ interested, but it needs a specific regulatory environment.”

Jose Pinheiro explained that it is planned to expand the floating wind farm erected off Viana do Castelo, which relies on auctions for wind energy.

Internally, we are developing expansion projects, but the regulatory environment for the technologies to compete and megawatts needed to develop larger projects is not available. The area defined in the Offshore Planning Status Plan (PSOM) for Viana do Castelo can accumulate between 15 and 20 wind turbines, but only when there is regulation, and ultimately an auction of floating technology,” he specified.

For the official, only “manufacturing, which comes when the market demands it, will allow technology to become cheaper, so that costs follow the natural trend of technology standardization.”

Save 60,000 people

The Windfloat technology complex consists of three floating platforms supporting turbines with an installed capacity of 25 MW, connected by 18 km cable, installed 100 m deep on the seabed, with a capacity of 200 MW. Renewable energy, which currently produces 25 megawatts.

Between July 2020 and the same month this year, Windfloat Atlantic produced, at 3,800 hours, 75 gigawatts per hour (GWh), enough to supply 60,000 people.

According to the data revealed by José Pinheiro, “The static reward for the energy produced is a dynamic value, but it is estimated at an average of €140 per MWh.

June 2021 was the month when the floating park produced the most energy, with a total of 8.6 GWh, and in August it broke a record four days in a row with a load factor of 48%.”

The Ocean Winds Consortium project was coordinated by EDP, through EDP Renováveis, integrating technology partner Principle Power and Repsol.

“Ocean Winds, of which EDP Renováveis ​​is a shareholder, has the ambition, having covered a path for several years in the development of floating wind technology, to continue large-scale commercial projects,” admitted Jose Pinheiro.

“The path has to be based on auctions, where the market is actually competing,” he noted.

During the visit to the floating park, the Atlantic WindFloat project manager said that the consortium is “developing projects in California, the United States, in South Korea, for three floating parks, in France, in the Bay of Leon, this one has begun expected for the end of 2022.”

“It’s a very similar project to the one in Viana do Castelo, it’s almost twin, with three 10MW units,” he said.

WindFloat Atlantic is supported by public and private entities and is funded by the European Commission, the Portuguese Government and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

“What this project intends to show is that countries can have it ‘offshore.’ This project came to show that it is possible to explore resources in places that were hitherto inaccessible,” he noted during the boat trip that took about 60 minutes.

For José Pinheiro, WindFloat technology has advantages over traditional technology, being “less intrusive”, for being a “fixing system”.

Another advantage, with regard to onshore wind farms, is that they “can be installed in large electric production centers outside communities, with much higher energy capacity than offshore ‘traditional’.”

“Floating technology is less invasive on the sea floor, because it does not involve physical penetration of large structures,” he said.

The “Portuguese project” consists of “two platforms produced in Lisnav, in Setubal”, and a third wind turbine was produced in Ferrol, in Galicia.

Maintenance is carried out “once a year and is similar to that performed on onshore wind farms”, and in the last year of operation, 513 man-hours were carried out offshore.

“From an engineering point of view, the project was developed to have a useful life of 25 years, but like the onshore wind, when it reaches 20 years, the wear condition of the equipment will be assessed,” Jose Pinheiro noted.