Updates from Bilbao
A lot has been happening in offshore wind this week. However, as the industry gathered at WindEurope 's annual event in Bilbao over the last three days, we have decided to share a few updates from the Spanish city in our recap today.
While in Bilbao, we visited the DemoSATH floating wind turbine in the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) test site today.
DemoSATH was assembled in the port of Bilbao and towed to the BiMEP site, where it was installed last year in a water depth of 85 metres. The floater, which comprises a 2 MW wind turbine, has been in operation since September 2023: https://lnkd.in/eJf2E4fi
Ahead of its annual event in Bilbao, WindEurope released a new report, done in collaboration with Rystad Energy, according to which the European wind energy sector, including both onshore and offshore wind, could employ more than 500,000 people in 2023.
In its 2023 annual report issued last month, WindEurope says that final investment decisions (FIDs) for offshore wind projects reached a record EUR 30 billion last year, with nearly 9 GW of capacity in Europe reaching this milestone in 2023.
Iberdrola and Amazon have expanded their long-term global clean power partnership by signing a power purchase agreement (PPA) for 159 MW of the 1.4 GW East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the UK, equivalent to 700 GWh of clean electricity per year.
The new agreement was announced at the Haizea Wind Group facility in Bilbao where the manufacturing of 50 monopiles for East Anglia Three is underway. From there, the units will be shipped to the UK and used to support the Siemens Gamesa 14+ MW wind turbines.
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Norwegian Offshore Wind (NOW) and Basque Energy Cluster have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen collaboration between the supply chains in Norway and the Basque Country.
According to NOW, Basque Energy Cluster has an advanced and established supply chain in offshore wind and has been and will be a crucial partner in NOW activities in the Spanish market and beyond. The MOU aims to lay the groundwork for new contracts between companies from the two countries in the future, said NOW.
After completing the first full-year bird survey in Norway using the AI bird-tracking technology developed by the Norwegian start-up Spoor, Deep Wind Offshore will introduce the technology to the Swedish and South Korean offshore wind markets.
Spoor has been tracking birds at the Utsira Nord floating wind area in Norway on behalf of Deep Wind Offshore over the past year, with the camera fitted on a lighthouse at the island of Utsira, off whose coast the Norwegian government is tendering 1.5 GW of floating wind generation capacity.
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Engineering and Environment Director at APSS Setúbal & Sesimbra Port Administration
8moIt was a pleasure to accept RWE's invitation and visit the #demosath project.