EIB grants EUR60 million loan to floating offshore wind project in Portugal

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has announced that it has granted a EUR60 million (US$68.8 million) loan to Windplus S.A., a subsidiary of EDP Renováveis (79.4%), Repsol S.A. (19.4%) and Principle Power Inc. (1.2%) to support the construction and operation of a first-of-its-kind offshore floating wind farm, using semisubmersible platforms located off the northern coast of Portugal, 20 km from Viana do Castelo at a depth of 85-100 metres.

The EUR60 million loan will finance the floating wind farm with the support of the InnovFin Energy Demonstration Project facility, which is funded under the EU’s current research and innovation programme Horizon 2020. In addition, the project will receive EUR29.9 million (US$34.3 million) from the EU’s NER300 programme, and up to EUR6 million  (US$6.9 million) from the Government of Portugal, through the Portuguese Carbon Fund.

The wind farm will comprise three turbines that sit upon floating platforms anchored to the seabed at a depth of 100 metres. The wind farm will have an installed capacity of 25 MW, equivalent to the energy consumed by 60,000 homes over the course of a year.

The new installation represents a flagship project in the innovative sector of floating wind energy and will contribute to the development, standardisation and manufacturing improvement of multi-MW modular floating platforms, which is a key objective under the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) of the European Commission. Two of the platforms will be manufactured in the dockyards of Setúbal, Portugal, and the third in the dockyards of Avilés and Fene, Spain.

It is estimated that nearly 80% of the offshore wind resources are located in waters 60 metres or more deep in the European seas where the cost of fixed-bottom structures is not economically attractive. The development of floating offshore wind technologies will make it possible to take advantage of cost reduction techniques employed in the sector which, combined with the higher capacity factor achieved in deeper water locations, will lead to significant reductions in the levelised cost of energy for floating offshore wind projects.