New Floating Wind Joint Venture Launched on Iberian Peninsula

The Ireland-based floating wind developer Simply Blue Group and Spanish companies Proes Consultores and FF New Energy Ventures have formed a joint venture named IberBlue Wind with plans to develop 2 GW of floating offshore wind capacity in Spain and Portugal.

According to the new project development company, IberBlue Wind has the capacity to take on all phases of floating offshore wind farm development with the extensive experience the three partners bring to the joint venture.

The launch of IberBlue Wind follows the Memorandum of Understanding the three companies signed this Spring.

Under its strategic plan, presented in Madrid on 19 September, the joint venture will focus on two 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, the partners said in a press release.

Adrián de Andrés , Market Development Director at Simply Blue and Vice President of IberBlue Wind, said that Spain and Portugal have the potential to become world leaders in offshore wind “as both countries have excellent wind resources, a long history in coastal engineering and first-class public works” .

During the launch of the new company and the presentation of the strategic plan, De Andrés also called for the Spanish government to be “more ambitious” in the tendering of offshore wind farms and said that the generation capacity in Spain could reach more than 10 GW in the long-term.

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 GW and 3 GW by 2030, IberBlue Wind states.

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, the government has committed to producing 8 GW of ocean renewable energy in the coming years, almost double the 5.6 GW of current onshore wind power generation capacity, the IberBlue Wind partners highlighted.

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