Plans for new floating wind project revealed in Spain, green hydrogen production included

A joint venture between Spanish companies BlueFloat Energy and Sener has revealed plans for one of the first floating offshore wind farms in Andalusia, Spain. The project is planned to have an installed capacity of 300 MW and to potentially power green hydrogen production.

Called Mar de Ágata, the floating wind farm would be located in the Mediterranean Sea, off the eastern coast of Almería, between the municipalities of Níjar and Carboneras.

The wind farm would comprise 20 floating offshore wind turbines with an output of 15 MW each. Located more than 15 kilometres away from Cabo de Gata, the wind farm’s planned connection point at the 400 kV “Litoral” electrical substation in the municipality of Carboneras will be less than 10 kilometres away from the wind farm, so the project does not include the development of an offshore substation.

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The identification of the site for the project has been carried out based on an analysis of the technical and environmental conditions: wind resource, availability of electrical connections with capacity, environmentally protected areas and species, fishing, depths, geomorphology of the seabed, waves, maritime traffic, air navigation and easements of the Ministry of Defense, according to a press release from BlueFloat Energy and Sener from 26 October.

The project proposes to cover part of the electricity demand of the green hydrogen plant proposed by Caldererías Indálicas, which will be developed in two phases and produce 20 tonnes of green hydrogen per day. In return, the Mar de Ágata project would take advantage of the technical capabilities and facilities of Caldererías Indálicas to manufacture part of the floating structures locally. This would also trigger the upscaling and capacity-building of the local contractors to support the construction as well as operation and maintenance of the assets, according to the project partners.

As for the wind farm itself, with a capacity of 300 MW, it could provide enough clean electricity to meet 28 per cent of the current electricity consumption in the province of Almería and would allow for avoiding 12 million tons of CO2 emissions during its 30-year lifespan.

The project would lead to the creation of 3,750 direct and 3,750 indirect jobs during the construction and decommissioning phases, out of which at least 55 per cent would be created in Andalusia. During the operation and maintenance phase, the employment generated would be around 120 jobs per year, of which 60 would be direct, Sener and BlueFloat Energy said.

With the Mar de Ágata floating wind farm, the installed wind capacity in the province of Almería would increase by 59 per cent, and the total wind capacity in Andalusia would grow by 8.6 per cent. In economic terms, the effect on the national GDP is estimated at EUR 630 million, which would represent 0.28 per cent of the Andalusian GDP, the developers said.

This is not the first floating wind project proposed in Spain by the joint venture, as BlueFloat and Sener are also proposing to build a 1 GW floating wind project, called Parc Tramuntana, off the coast of the region of Empordá, near the Gulf of Roses in Catalonia.

The total planned capacity of 1,000 MW would be installed in two phases of 500 MW, with between 30 and 40 floating wind turbines installed per phase.

The news about the new project in Spain comes on the same day as BlueFloat and its partner Flack Renewables announced another floating wind project in Italy, for which the companies are preparing to submit requests for authorisation and a concession permit.

The Madrid-headquartered company and Falck Renewables are also jointly bidding to build floating wind farms in Scotland, after teaming up at the beginning of this year.