From November 22 to 23, Bilbao becomes the capital of Spanish offshore wind power, where AEE celebrates the I Offshore Wind Congress. The Wind Business Association has the support of the Basque Energy Cluster as co-organizer and the Basque Energy Entity (EVE) as institutional partner. For two days, more than 350 attendees will analyze the potential of this technology to position the Spanish industry as an international benchmark. In this field, and specifically in floating technology, Spain is a technological and industrial hub worldwide, being the country with the largest number of patents for floating solutions.
The Secretary of State for Energy, Sara Aagesen, will inaugurate the 1st Spanish Offshore Wind Congress at 3:00 p.m. on November 22, accompanied by the Basque Government’s Deputy Minister for Industry, Mikel Amundarain, and the president of the Basque Energy Cluster, Luis Rodríguez Llopis. All of them will be welcomed by Juan Diego Díaz, president of AEE.
The Roadmap for Offshore Wind and Energies from the Sea in Spain, published in December 2021 by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, sets an installed offshore wind power capacity of up to 3 GW as a target for 2030. The fulfillment of the objectives of the Roadmap will allow our country to consolidate itself as a reference for technological development, R+D+i and tests of prototypes and solutions for offshore wind power in general and floating wind power in particular.
In Spain we have the complete value chain and the necessary infrastructures to address the development of offshore wind power on our coasts. We have a privileged position as the first developer of offshore wind power prototypes in the world, port infrastructures with great potential as logistics hubs and a naval industry that is already diversifying its activity towards the construction of offshore structures and support vessels for offshore wind farms. .
The development of offshore wind power represents a boost for the strategic sectors with which it has synergies, such as shipbuilding and shipyards, the auxiliary maritime industry and port management, civil engineering and consultancy, the construction industry, as well as the metal industry, etc. For these sectors, offshore wind power has become a leading market in their business diversification strategies.
It is urgent to have a regulatory framework and concrete planning in the medium and long term, which activates in the coming months the development work of the parks that will be operational in 2029. The development work will involve jobs in engineering, studies, industrial planning, environmental consulting, provision of services from coastal communities, also generating a very significant induced employment component.
In the world, in 2021, the record for offshore wind installation has been broken. During the past year, 21,222 MW of offshore wind power have been installed worldwide, an increase of 59% compared to 2020, which gives an idea of ??the strength and maturity of this technology. The countries where the most offshore wind power has been installed have been China, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Vietnam.
Spain cannot miss this opportunity.
The sponsoring companies that collaborate in this event are promoters of future projects, manufacturers, technologists and companies in the value chain of offshore wind power in Spain such as Acciona Energy, Capital Energy. Equinor, Grupo Amper, IberBlue Wind, Iberdrola, Naturgy, Navantia Seanergies, Orsted, Ocean Winds, Repsol, RWE and Watson Farley & Williams as VIP companies. Collaborating companies are the following: Acciona, AON, Applus, Arup, BlueFloat Energy, Bureau Veritas, Ditrel, DNV, Ecos Group, Elittoral, EnerOcean, Esteyco, Greenalia, Magellan & Barents, Ramboll, Robert Walters, Roxtec, Saitec Offshore Technologies, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Tecnoambiente, Typsa, TotalEnergies and X1 Wind.
