EDP Renewables, Mitsubishi Corp. Chiyoda Corp., Engie and Repsol have agreed to build a floating offshore wind farm located off the coast of Northern Portugal.
The WindFloat Atlantic (WFA) project, located 20 km off the Portuguese coast at Viana do Castelo, is planned to be operational in 2018 and will consist of three or four wind turbines on floating foundations, accounting for a total capacity of 25 MW. WFA will benefit from the support of the European Commission, through the NER 300 program, and of the Portuguese Government through the Portuguese Carbon Fund. It was also selected for the InnovFin program by the European Investment Bank.
The consortium will use the WindFloat technology, a semi-submersible foundation developed by Principle Power. This technology was already implemented in a first-of-its- kind prototype called WindFloat 1 near Povoa do Varzim. It comprises 2 MW Vestas V80 commercial wind turbines mounted on a WindFloat floating offshore wind turbine foundation.
The consortium asserts that the prototype has already produced more than 16 GWh over almost four years of operation – performing excellently through extreme weather conditions. The results have been key for the creation of this consortium and the launch of the WFA project, the aim of which is to demonstrate the economic potential and reliability of this technology, advancing it further in the path towards commercialization.
