Norwegian energy giant Equinor has received the green light to build a 200-MW floating offshore wind farm (OWF) off the coast of the Canary Islands.
According to local media report, the energy major planning to invest around €860M to the OWF off Spain's Gran Canaria island.
Equinor had earlier sent an expression of interest to the Government of Spain to develop the OWF in an area southeast of the island, some three kilometres from the coast of Juan Grande.
Following the receipt of the expression of interest, the Ministry of Ecological Transition plans to issue an invitation to determine if any other developers are interested in building a wind farm at the proposed site.
If no other developers respond to the solicitation, Equinor expects to start working on obtaining the necessary permits for the project. If the administrative process gets off the ground this year, the wind farm could begin operations in 2024.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Energy of the Canary Islands, the project would be similar to Equinor's 30MW Hywind Scotland, the world's first commercial-scale floating wind farm.
When finished, the project will increase the archipelago’s total renewable energy capacity by a third.