Wind energy is now one of the main sources of renewable energy in the EU and Spain wants to be a frontrunner in this. Despite the fact that Spanish technology in this field is one of the most relevant at the European level, the country still has a long way to go. Nevertheless, before the end of this decade (i.e. before 2030) Spain wants to install 15 to 17 floating wind farms with a capacity of 3 gigawatts of offshore wind energy off the coast.
A floating wind turbine is a wind turbine that is mounted on a floating structure. This makes it possible to place the turbine where the water is too deep for foundations, but where the wind blows harder and is more constant. Floating wind turbines use the experience of the oil and gas industry with floating oil platforms.
Spain is currently the world’s first prototype developer and of the 13 floating test facilities currently in existence, 11 are manufactured by Spanish companies.
Of course this is a technology that is still under development, but for Spain as a pioneer there is a huge opportunity here for the future.
Currently, Spain only has onshore wind turbines with a total capacity of 28,138 megawatts. Spain is now the EU country with the highest wind energy capacity after Germany. The wind turbines currently produce 23% of the country’s energy needs with peaks of 50% or even almost 100%. There are 1,298 wind farms in more than 1,000 municipalities with 21,574 installed wind turbines in Spain, employing 27,690 people.
This once again shows that Spain is now completely up to date and fully committed to sustainable energy and energetic self-sufficiency.
In addition to wind energy, Spain has also been fully focusing on solar panels since 2018. Solar panels that naturally achieve an exceptional return in this sun-drenched country compared to the countries in Northern Europe.
Source https://www.businessinsider.es/mas Business insider Espana