GUILLERMO DEL PALACIO
JUAN C. SÁNCHEZ
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@_JuanCsanchez_
Updated on Wednesday, 14April2021-01: 25
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Among seaweed, towels, jellyfish, crystalline waters -or not- and teenage memories in full creation, a new image may appear, not especially associated with the beach, but with Spanish popular culture: the windmill.
Offshore wind energy uses the same wind turbines that populate various areas of the peninsula, but nevertheless its installation does not get off the ground, contrary to what happens in northern Europe and the United States, where millionaire plans are already being announced to encourage their development.
Out of the reach of its natural predators, the hidalgos of La Mancha, what stops this technology in Spain?
Currently the main problem is the coasts.
Not so much the beaches themselves -which also, since the visual and environmental impact is always taken into account when developing these projects-, but the depth of the sea floor.
The peninsula has very little continental shelf, so the depth quickly exceeds 50 meters, which makes it not possible to install fixed wind turbines.
But that does not mean that you have to give up offshore wind.
"As we do not have as much continental shelf as other countries, we have to go to floating solutions", explains
Juan Virgilio
, CEO of the Wind Energy Business Association.
These wind turbines are located on a platform that floats on the water and they are only connected to the ground by cables that act as an anchor at the same time.
The most developed technology is known as
bottom fix
, with wind turbines practically identical to those that can be seen inside the peninsula ... only on the seabed.
There are already several parks around the world with enormous generation capacity and recently the Biden Government has made a great commitment to this solution with a plan of 12,000 million euros that seeks to supply clean energy to 10 million Americans.
The United Kingdom also held a large capacity auction last February that accelerates its race so that a third of the electricity consumed in the country in 2030 comes from this energy.
As a whole, offshore wind concentrated investments of 26.3 billion euros in 2020 and there are already 112 operating parks in 12 different countries.
However, in Spain, as we saw, this is not possible.
This is where a very similar solution comes in and, in principle, with the same advantages: the floating one.
Companies such as
Repsol
-with the Windfloat Atlantic project- are already participating in floating park projects in the Iberian Peninsula capable of supplying electricity to 60,000 inhabitants, although the truth is that there is still a bit to do before they begin to expand en masse.
"It is a source of renewable energy that allows the installation of projects with a large generation capacity and with a higher electricity generation than on land and in a more stable way", sums up
Javier García
, director of Iberdrola's offshore business area .
Electricity is one of the world's leading groups in promoting this technology with projects in the North Sea, the Baltic and off the coast of Ireland.
In fact, currently offshore wind can create projects of about 500 MW, while on land they reach 50 megawatts at most.
"You don't have access restrictions, which allows you to go to much larger machines," explains García.
Thus, the diameter of the rotors reaches 170 or 200 meters, which would be equivalent to almost two of the proverbial football fields, spinning and generating energy.
And that, for each mill, with which only two of them could generate the same as an average park on land.
"The floating technology is developing and that makes it begin to approach numbers that can be competitive," the manager argues.
Thus, although it is still far from the huge numbers of the fixed, there are projects to demonstrate the competitiveness of the floating, with 10 MW turbines.
"We are moving from a commercial phase to a competitive phase."
The next step, in Virgilio's opinion, would be to establish an auction calendar by the Government and that it is focused on value, not price.
"The challenge we have is to consolidate in Spain a minimum of floating offshore wind power that is a reality in the medium term," he explains.
In the sector they consider that it would be "reasonable" to reach the year 2030 with between 2 and 3 GW of offshore wind farms.
But for this we must "speed up certain issues", he adds, such as updating the regulation for the processing of offshore wind, which dates from a not too distant in time, but in technology, 2007. "We must clarify the management of the marine space ", a process that he concedes is" tedious and complex ".
"All economic activities at sea must be ordered, with total respect for the environment and marine diversity."
When it comes to the auction framework, Virgilio reasons that it would allow investors to make a profit by incorporating offshore wind.
In this sense, he believes that European funds represent an "opportunity" and several experimentation projects are already being proposed to make Spain a kind of world capital of floating wind power.
"The moment is now".
Experience and industry
That the mills do not occupy our coasts does not mean that Spain is ignoring this technology, far from it.
On the one hand, everything advanced in traditional wind power - which benefits, according to García, from the fact that "there are areas with low population density where there is room and space to develop
onshore
wind power
" - help in the marina.
On the other, there is all the accumulated experience in the development of wind turbines for other seas.
"We have worked with Spanish companies and we have been helping the marine sector", recalls García, who mentions other "leading companies in the offshore wind supply chain" such as Navantia or Haizea Wind. "There is a supply chain; whatever there is no project development that reinforces all that strategy ".
They have already submitted a proposal to the Ministry to launch a 300 megawatt park with financing from European recovery funds in 2026.
Virgilio agrees with this idea.
"In Spain we have the entire value chain: we can manufacture from the first screw to the wind turbine; from the first study to the maintenance operation".
Mills on the horizon
Although on the metaphorical horizon the blades do begin to appear, it does not seem that they will end up doing it physically, at least in Spain.
"The installation of an offshore wind farm has to be done in an orderly way and compatible with other uses," Garcia reasons.
"Normally what is sought is precisely the distance from the coast so that it does not produce that visual impact."
"If someone thinks that they are going to be installed one kilometer from the coast or 500 meters, it is a real outrage," Virgilio also reassures.
"The areas that are reserved are perfectly defined areas because they do not have any impact in all areas: visual, impact on the environment or biodiversity or on the economic activities that are carried out (it does not occur to anyone to put a wind farm in an area fishing, for example) ".
The manager, in fact, believes that the presence of these clean energy giants can be positive: "when you arrive in a country on a plane and see wind turbines, you first have a sustainable tourism country brand that other countries don't have. ".
Thus, it considers that "it is an added value rather than a problem".
"What we cannot afford is not taking advantage of the economic, industrial and climatic opportunities that renewable technology offers us," he says.
"We believe that the future, if we do not bet on this type of change, will be infinitely worse to be able to see some shadows of one-millimeter wind turbines on clear days."
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