EDP Renewables is leading a consortium of companies to set up a 25-megawatt floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Northern Portugal.
The project, located 20 kilometres off the Portuguese coast at Viana do Castelo, is planned to be operational in 2018 and will consist of 3 or 4 wind turbines on floating foundations. The WindFloat Atlantic project 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.
Mitsubishi Corp., Chiyoda Corp., Engie and Repsol are other members of the consortium. The consortium will use the WindFloat technology, a semi-submersible foundation developed by Principle Power Inc. This technology was already implemented in a first of its kind prototype called WindFloat 1 near Póvoa do Varzim. It comprises Vestas’ 2-MW V80 commercial wind turbine mounted on a WindFloat floating offshore wind turbine foundation.
The prototype has already produced more than 16 GWh over almost four years of operation – performing excellently through extreme weather conditions.