Floating wind for Canary Islands

The four projects, Dunas, Mojo, Cardon and Guanche are independent projects, with each of the four expected to have a capacity of 50MW. Each of these individual projects will consist of four 12.5MW turbines which will be amongst the largest turbine units used on floating support structures. These floating foundations are likely to be constructed in concrete and based on a semi-submersible design and they will be anchored to the seabed at depths of between 61 and 92m. At this stage the company has not released details of the design of the floating structure but it is likely to be one of the established concepts that have been undergoing trials

These floating wind farms will be located close to the Gofio wind farm that is already undergoing the approval process and which is located offshore from the Gran Canarian south-east coast. This area is claimed to have one of the highest wind resources in Europe making it an ideal location for offshore wind.

The deployment of these wind farms is expected to enable the Canary Islands to achieve its goal of developing 310MW of offshore wind as set out in its 2015-2025 Strategic Energy Plan (EECan25). With these new floating wind farm projects totaling 250MW Greenalia is anticipating a significant reduction in energy costs due to the application of scale economies and thus to generate important public fund savings. They will generate enough power to supply 280,000 homes and it has been calculated to reduce the emission of approximately 560,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. In addition to producing electricity from renewable sources, these floating wind projects will create a considerable number of new jobs.

Greenalia is an independent power producer that deals only in renewable technologies with 12 years of experience in the sector. The company is operating in three renewable sectors, wind, solar and biomass and has built a number of onshore wind farms on the Spanish mainland