Greenalia plans four new floating wind farms in Gran Canaria

Greenalia has initiated the process for the development of four new floating offshore wind projects, by filing its project & environmental planning applications in addition to the GOFIO 50MW wind farm, which launched its permitting process earlier this year.

DUNAS, MOJO, CARDON and GUANCHE are completely independent projects with a installed power of 50 MW each, located in the South-east coast of the Gran Canaria island, in the vicinity of GOFIO offshore wind farm. In fact, this is one of the areas with highest wind resource in Europe, which makes the Canary Islands the ideal platform for deployment of floating wind technology in Spain.

Each project will consist of four 12.5MW offshore wind turbines on top of floating foundations, anchored to the seabed at depths of between 61 and 92 meters. As in the case of GOFIO Wind Farm, these new facilities will be connected to the grid through submarine cables which will conduct the energy produced by each of the wind farms individually.

In this way, Greenalia is endorsing its commitment to floating wind energy, as one of the renewable energy sources that will lead the green growth in Europe in coming years, where 80% of the offshore wind resource is located at depths of more than 60 meters, but also Worldwide, where 70% of the offshore wind resource is also floating, and more importantly, where are located the areas with the largest renewable resource and thus the areas that could obtain the most competitive generation costs of all the renewable energies.

These four new projects, along with GOFIO, which started the permitting process earlier this year, mean a considerable increase in Greenalia’s portfolio of offshore wind projects, reaching 250MW power in the Canary Islands. As a result of this, it is expected a significant reduction in energy costs (LCOE), due to the application of scale economies, and thus to generate important public fund savings. But also, this positive effect for the Canary Islands is double, since these projects will boost the process of energy decarbonization in the Canary Islands by replacing a significant portion of the traditional highly polluting sources of power out of the Canary Islands’ energy mix, resulting in an environmental benefit; and on the other hand they will also contribute to the creation of qualified employment on the islands, especially important currently if we take into account the current destruction of employment as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

DUNAS, MOJO, CARDON and GUANCHE projects have a total installed power of 200MW and will produce enough energy to supply a population of more than 280,000 homes, but also will avoid the emission of approximately 560,000 tons of CO₂ per year. During the process of development, construction and operation, the projects will generate hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, contributing to the development of a green economy in the area.

With the deployment of these projects, the Canary Islands will become one of the world leaders in floating offshore wind technology, and also it will be possible to achieve the objective of developing 310 MW of offshore wind, as set out in the Canary Islands 2015-2025 Strategic Energy Plan (the so-called “EECan25”).

Finally, these 250MW are expected to become an essential key for the deployment of the floating wind sector worldwide and a historic opportunity for Spain to lead the most strategic growing energy sector nowadays, which would also mean an unbeatable opportunity for the internationalization of its Industry, and an significant job creation impulse.