World's first 15MW floating wind units in frame as Spanish offshore gathers pace

Floating wind pioneer Saitec aims to deploy 15MW turbines off Spain by 2025 as part of a flagship utility-scale array, in a further ramp up of the start-up’s ambitions for its innovative concrete platform design.

The Spanish group unveiled plans for the three-turbine 45MW Geroa (Green Energy Research for Offshore Atlantic) demonstrator project at a site 10km off Bilbao in the Bay of Biscay.

The pilot is the next step in the upscaling of its SATH (swing around twin hull) platform, a version of which is currently under construction in the Port of Bilbao to be mated with a 2MW turbine under Saitec’s DemoSATH project.

The SATH concept is engineered around twin-pontoon platform anchored to the seabed with a single-point mooring that allows it to "weathervane" in the water, improving power production by always facing the turbine upwind,

Saitec did not specify which turbine model it plans to use for the Geroa units.

Saitec said projects such as Geroa will be crucial in laying the ground for large-scale commercial floating wind tenders that are likely to be coming as the Spanish government lays its regulatory plans for an offshore wind policy.

Floating deployments are set to play a major role in the deep waters off Spain, where large-scale fixed-bottom installation of the sort seen in northern Europe will not be possible.

Major players such as Iberdrola are already laying the ground for potential large-scale developments. The Spanish giant earlier in June confirmed it had submitted initial proposals for around 1GW of floating wind off the north-western province of Galicia.

Spanish authorities are in the process of updating the regulatory framework that will allow the development of commercial offshore wind projects larger than 50MW.

Madrid’s moves are part of a mushrooming in activity in floating wind power that spans other European markets such as France, the UK and Norway, and further afield into Asia and California.