Ocean Winds set to boost clean energy

Ocean Winds, the majority shareholder of the offshore wind farm off Viana do Castelo, is prepared to increase its investment in the country in light of the “positive signs” of the opening of an offshore wind farm auction in the “medium term”.

Speaking to Lusa news agency this Wednesday, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Windfloat Atlantic park, in a partnership between EDP Renováveis ​​and Engie, the director of the wind project, José Pinheiro, said that “there are positive signs from this Government that the competitive model is more or less consensual and with timings that are already pointing to the auction taking place this year or in 2026 ”.

José Pinheiro pointed to the publication in the Official Gazette, in April, of the order that determines the model of the competitive procedure and operationalizes its preparation, highlighting that “the prospects for expansion of this technology are very dependent on the launch of the auctions”.

“We are all experiencing a complicated macroeconomic and geopolitical context that affects many areas of business. It is natural. We have to wait. It is obvious that we are a global company and we can allocate investment to other regions,” he added.

The April order determines that, within 180 days after its publication (September), “ the documents for the competitive procedure must be drawn up ”.

The Allocation Plan for Offshore Renewable Energy (PAER) was approved by the Council of Ministers on January 9 and defines the areas and volumes of national maritime space for the commercial exploration of offshore wind energy.

Thus, an area of ​​229 square kilometres (km2) is expected in Viana do Castelo, for a power of 0.8 (gigawatts) GW, 722 km2 in Leixões (2.5 GW), 1,325 km2 in Figueira da Foz (4.6 GW), 430 km2 in Sines (1.5 GW) and 5.6 km2 in Aguçadoura.

“The final area of ​​the PAER allows for an installed capacity of around 9.4 GW for commercial projects and to accommodate environmental impact mitigation measures that are considered necessary in the environmental impact assessment of offshore renewable energy projects , as well as the spaces necessary to safeguard navigation corridors and minimize the wake effect between wind farms,” the document reads.

For José Pinheiro, the five years of operation of Windfloat have allowed Ocean Winds to “mature” its knowledge in floating wind technology.

For the company, this technology “is ready to be scaled up — highlighting the full potential of floating offshore wind energy and putting Portugal on the map as a leader in this global transition to clean energy.”

“It’s been five years of a lot of learning, not just about eminently technical issues, such as how platforms interact with wind turbines and how this combination can be optimized to achieve better performance, but also how the project interacts with the environment, with biodiversity,” said José Pinheiro.

WindFloat was connected to the grid in December 2019 and reached full commercial operation in September 2020. As of last March, the project had recorded a total cumulative production of 345 Gigawatt hours (GWh), providing electricity annually to around 25,000 homes in Viana do Castelo, while avoiding more than 33,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.