Government promotes experimental offshore wind farm in Costa Brava

The Catalan government is promoting a new experimental offshore wind farm off the Costa Brava coast. A floating lab will also be installed to conduct environmental studies, with the whole apparatus built between 16 to 24 kilometers off the coastline.

Officials believe the pilot laboratory will be ready before the end of 2025, and it will be divided into different sections.

The idea is to build it off the coast at Roses, in the Alt Empordà county, Catalonia's easternmost point. In this area, there are several commercial offshore wind farms already planned for the area, but so far, none have been built, as local legislation still needs to be adapted.

Listen to the Filling the Sink podcast episode published on April 24, 2021 to know what locals think of these wind farms.

Two different areas of experimentation

The first part of this experimental offshore wind farm will focus on evaluating materials, components, and systems, and how they perform in sea conditions. Other research, development, and innovation practices will also be carried out.

The second zone will be designed to test the different prototypes of marine energy generation technologies using the kinetic energy of waves.

The government is also planning a different area to promote industrial innovation, such as testing wind turbines and other marine technologies.

All the energy produced during the tests will be sent to shore using a subterranean electric cable line of 66 kV.

"With this equipment, we want to facilitate and promote research in all phases of the process to develop a floating offshore wind energy system and other renewable energy technologies in the sea, as well as promote learnings to researchers and professionals linked to these fields," a statement from the Catalan ministry of climate action reads.

Researching on sea's response

The project will test floating platforms to develop offshore wind farms and find out more about "what happens in the sea," as marine energy researcher José Luis Domínguez explained to the Catalan News Agency.

The idea will be the first step in discovering what happens when the first wind turbines are installed offshore. For this reason, at the beginning of the project, authorities will test two wind turbine prototypes with the capacity to fit up to five different turbines with a maximum power of 15 MW.