Spanish offshore engineering company Saitec on Thursday announced its interest in developing a pre-commercial floating wind pilot park with 5 floating wind units and a total potential of 50MW, 15 km from Cap de Creus, Catalonia, Spain, by 2025.
The offshore wind turbines will use SATH technology in open sea in Girona, specifically in an area located more 15 km from Cap de Creus on the Costa Brava.
Medfloat Pilot Parc has started with the presentation of the Initial Project Document for assessment by the competent environmental body, which will answer with information on the scope that the environmental impact study should have.
However, Saitec is already carrying out drafting work on the Environmental Impact Study.
Medfloat Pilot Parc will include the creation of a test infrastructure in the Levantino-Balearic Demarcation for the testing, demonstration, and validation of Saitec's SATH technology. It will also demonstrate the technical, environmental and social feasibility of future developments of floating offshore wind energy, and particularly of SATH technology, in the Mediterranean.
Shared use
At the same time, Saitec said, it aims to become a pioneering project to investigate the possibilities of shared use with other activities, especially fishing and aquaculture, as well as the promotion of employment and boost the supply chain of offshore wind energy in Catalonia. In addition, the wind turbines will potentially provide power for 50,000 homes.
The selected installation area has been provisionally defined as Priority Use for offshore wind power in the Maritime Spatial Planning Plans of the Spanish Government. At the same time, the area meets the right wind and depth conditions to launch this project.
"Medfloat Pilot Parc is an initiative aligned with the climate neutrality objectives and one step forward in consolidating SATH technology after the development of the pioneering 2 MW DemoSATH project, which is currently under construction in the port of Bilbao. The objective of the 2 MW DemoSATH project, carried out in collaboration with RWE, is to test the technology and progress in the industrialized manufacturing process for this solution.
DemoSATH will be installed in the BiMEP test area, in the Spanish section of the Biscay Bay, where tests will be carried out for two years, providing useful information for the environmental evaluation of MedFloat.
DemoSATH will be the first floating offshore wind turbine connected to the Spanish grid and capable to provide power to 2,000 homes.