Saitec Unveils Plans for 50 MW Floating Wind Farm Offshore Spain

Saitec Offshore Technologies wants to build a 50 MW pre-commercial pilot floating wind farm in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore Costa Brava, by 2025.

The Spanish engineering company plans to deploy five 10 MW wind turbines installed on its proprietary SATH floating foundations at a site located some 15 kilometres off Cap de Creus on Costa Brava in the Spanish region of Catalonia.

Saitec is currently awaiting information on the required scope of the environmental impact study, after presenting the Initial Project Document for assessment to the competent environmental body. The company said that, in the meantime, it had already started carrying out drafting work on the Environmental Impact Study.

The selected project site is in an area that was provisionally defined as Priority Use for offshore wind power in the Maritime Spatial Planning Plans of Spanish Government, Saitec pointed out and added that the area meets the right wind and depth conditions for its floating wind project.

The 50 MW wind farm, called Medfloat Pilot Parc, is meant to provide a testing infrastructure in the Levantino-Balearic Demarcation for the demonstration and validation of the SATH technology, and will also demonstrate the technical, environmental, and social feasibility of future developments of floating offshore wind energy, and particularly of SATH technology, in the Mediterranean.

“At the same time, it aims to become a pioneering project to investigate the possibilities of shared use with other activities, especially with fishing and aquaculture, as well as the promotion of employment and boost the supply chain of offshore wind energy in Catalonia. In addition, the wind turbines will potentially provide power for 50,000 homes”, Saitec said in a press release on 2 June.

Medfloat Pilot Parc is the next step in consolidating Saitec’s floating wind technology after the development of the 2 MW DemoSATH project, which is currently under construction in the Port of Bilbao and is set to soon be installed for a two-year demonstration period at the BiMEP test area in Biscay, Spain.

The DemoSATH pilot project, carried out in collaboration with RWE, will test the SATH technology with an aim to progress to an industrialised manufacturing process, and will also provide useful information for the environmental evaluation of MedFloat, according to Saitec.

Saitec’s SATH (Swinging Around Twin Hull) technology is based on a concrete platform concept with a plug-and-play Single Point Mooring, the same technology used for FPSOs. 

Once installed at the BiMEP site, DemoSATH will become the first floating wind turbine to be connected to the Spanish grid.

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