Greenalia starts the development of Spain’s first floating offshore wind farm in Gran Canaria

•  The project Parque Eólico Gofio is a 50 MW offshore wind farm located in the South East of the Gran Canaria Island

The company Greenalia is launching its first Floating Offshore Wind Project in Gran Canaria by filing its project & environmental planning application. The project Parque Eólico Gofio is a 50 MW offshore wind farm located in the South East of the Gran Canaria Island, in front of the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana and in close proximity to the port of Arinaga.

The power plant is formed by four 12,5 MW offshore wind turbines on top of floating foundations and will deliver the energy produced by the use of submarine cables. The project is located in one of the areas with highest wind resource in Europe as it has been highlighted in several energy reports.

In this way, Greenalia (based in Galicia, Spain) is endorsing its committment on developing green energy projects as part of the New Green Deal and subsequently wants to be a key part of the descarbonization process both in Spain and Europe. The same way, Greenalia wants to diversify its energy portfolio by adding on of the most promising Renewable Energy sources to it, as offshore wind is surely the source with the biggest growth rate in the World in the last decade, but also with a vast development potential throughout the World´s Seas and Oceans

Greenalia believes firmly that this project could help to unlock the potential of Offshore Wind Energy in Spanish coasts. The same way, Greenalia believes that the development of this project will have a significant positive effect in local Canary economy by creating a lot of direct and indirect jobs, but also will be an important opportunity for Galician industry suppliers to lead the coming Floating Offshore Wind market.

In this sense, the European Commission currently considers Offshore Wind Energy as the main basis of green energy growth in Europe for coming years in order to achieve the 2050 “zero emisión” target, the same way that the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that Offshore Wind Energy will be the main energy source in Europe by 2042.

In late 2019, Wind Europe presented their manifest “Our Energy, Our Future”, where sets a target of 450 GW of Offshore Wind energy in Europe by 2050. The same way, this manifest sets a 13 GW target for Spain to meet the European target, while currently there is only a 5 MW offshore wind turbine connected to the Spanish Grid, in the Canary Islands.

The energy produced by Parque Eólico Gofio will be enough to feed approximately 70.000 households, as well as avoiding the equivalent of 140.000 tons on CO2 or the emissions of the 90.000 cars yearly.

It is expected that the full development, construction and operation of Parque Eólico Gofio will contribute to the green development in the Canary Region in order to meet 310 MW Marine Renewable Energy target established by the Canary Government in 2017 in the so-called “Estrategia Energética de Canarias 2015-2025 (EECan25)”. But furthermore, it is also expected that this development and others coming will position the Canary Island as one of the leading Regions in the World on the develoment of Floating Wind Energy.