Simply Blue Group, Proes Consultores and FF New Energy Ventures launch floating wind joint venture
IberBlue Wind, a joint
venture focused on the development of floating offshore wind farm projects,
announced it is commencing operations in Spain and Portugal with the aim
of becoming one of the leading players in the offshore market off the Iberian
Peninsula.
Its three backers - Irish company Simply Blue Group and the Spanish companies
Proes Consultores and FF New Energy Ventures - have collectively international
experience in renewable project development.
Simply Blue Group is a developer of floating offshore wind farms with projects
in Ireland, UK, US, Poland, and Sweden. It currently has a pipeline
of 10GW of projects under development. As part of its growth strategy,
the company is now expanding into the Spanish and Portuguese markets.
Proes Consultores is the specialised engineering and architecture division
of the Amper Group, with experience in the marine and coastal engineering
sectors. Proes Consultores offers engineering, industrial and technological
services and has participated in the design of Kincardine, a floating wind
project in Scotland.
FF New Energy Ventures is active in the development, construction, and
operation of solar photovoltaic and renewable energy plants in Spain, and
has incorporated offshore wind energy into its portfolio. It has so far
created a portfolio of 2 GW between the two countries, with more than 0.5
GW with connection rights already secured.
Supported by the alliance of these three leading companies, IberBlue Wind
will participate in the public auctions for offshore sites off Spain and
Portugal and will undertake the early development and design of the projects
in advance of the construction and commissioning of wind turbines. To this
end, its aim is to develop around 2 GW of floating offshore wind capacity
off the Iberian Peninsula, comprising wind farms each of 500MW or more.
Initially, IberBlue Wind will focus on two strategically selected regions.
In Spain, it will start in Andalusia, where it aspires to lead the promotion
of offshore wind energy as a new economic engine for the region; and Galicia,
one of the communities with the greatest potential for this form of renewable
energy. In Portugal, IberBlue Wind will focus on the central and northern
parts of the country where there is an excellent wind energy resource.
During the launch, Adrián de Andrés, Vice President of IberBlue Wind, stated:
"the potential for Spain and Portugal to become world leaders in
offshore wind generation, as both countries have excellent wind resources,
a long history in coastal engineering and first-class public works".
IberBlue Wind can play a key role in delivering this goal because, as De
Andrés said, "we can leverage our knowledge and experience acquired
in floating offshore wind projects in Great Britain, Ireland and elsewhere,
in the Iberian market.” In his speech, the Vice President also called
for the Spanish government to be "more ambitious" in the tendering
of offshore wind farms. In this context, he stated that the generation
capacity of these facilities in Spain could reach more than 10GW in the
long-term future.
This generation capacity is much higher than initially envisaged in the
Roadmap for Offshore Wind and Marine Energy Development, which has set
a target of between 1 and 3GW by 2030. The current draft of the Marine
Spatial Plan assigns a space for offshore wind that only covers 0.8% of
the available maritime space along its 8,000km of coastline; a density
that Andrés described as "conservative" compared to countries
such as Scotland with around 2.5%.
Regarding Portugal, Adrián de Andrés considers that its legislation
"is ready to provide exclusive maritime space for wind energy, although
a regulation is needed to establish the procedure for the auctioning of
these development rights". In Portugal, which has 987 kilometres
of coastline, the government has committed to producing 8GW of ocean renewable
energy in the coming years, almost double the 5.6GW of current onshore
wind power generation capacity.
