Offshore wind developer Ocean Winds and DISA Group, a renewable electricity generation firm in the Canary Islands, have teamed up to develop offshore wind farms in the Canary Islands.
Ocean Winds, formed last year as a joint venture between EDP Renewables and Engie, said Friday that the main objective of the partnership with DISA is to develop projects with floating wind power technology, as the depth of the waters off the coast makes it necessary to use floaters rather than fixed-bottomed wind turbines.
Ocean Winds said the floating wind projects would help to reach the targets set out in the recently approved Law on Climate Change and Energy Transition, with which Spain aspires to double the share of renewable energy of final energy consumption to 42% by 2030.
"This is an even greater challenge for the Canary Islands as this rate currently only stands at 4% according to information taken from the Canary Islands Energy Yearbook 2019," Ocean Winds said.
According to the partners, Offshore wind energy from the jointly promoted projects would double the current share of renewable energy, as well as reduce the cost of electricity generation on the islands.
While the floating wind industry is still in its early stages, Ocean Winds is, as a company owned by EDPR and Engie, has experience from the developed Windfloat Atlantic, located 20 km off the coast of Viana do Castelo in Portugal, the first semi-submersible floating wind farm in the world, which came online last year.
