IberBlue eyes 18MW turbines for $4bn of Spain-Portugal cross-border floating wind
Joint venture plans deployment of 109 ultra-large machines at projects that would serve a million homes in shared electricity market
Iberian offshore wind pioneer IberBlue Wind unveiled plans to use 18MW turbines for 2GW of cross-border floating projects between Spain and Portugal.
IberBlue – a joint venture between Irish developer Simply Blue and Spanish outfits Proes Consultores and FF New Energy Ventures – hopes to use 109 of the giant machines for the Juan Sebastián Elcano and Creoula.
The two projects will occupy 530 sq km off the coasts of Baixo Miño in Pontevedra and Viana do Castelo and are planned to supply enough power for a million homes in the Iberian Electricity Market shared by the two countries.
IberBlue Wind reckons the total investment needed to construct and maintain the two projects will top €4bn ($4.4bn), with a 32% lower joint development cost than if they advanced separately.
Adrián de Andrés, vice president of IberBlue Wind said: "We have already engaged with both authorities when we presented our projects to the Spanish and Portuguese authorities, and we look forward to continued engagement."
Creoula, the larger of the two projects with a planned 1.44GW, sits in Portugal’s planned area for offshore wind development and would contribute to the nation’s target to have 10GW in place by 2030, said IberBlue Wind.
The 18MW machines slated for the projects represent some of the largest planned turbine deployments in offshore wind so far.
Only a handful of manufacturers – China’s Mingyang and CSSC Haizhuang, and US giant GE with a new version of its Haliade-X – have publicly spoken about launching turbines of that power.
IberBlue separately announced in February that it would use 18MW machines for its 990MW Botafogo project planned off Portugal.