Spanish government body clears way for large wind farm project off the Costa del Sol
ENVIRONMENT ·
A huge site off the coast of Fuengirola and Marbella has been earmarked for the construction of the major energy plant, more than 20 kilometres out to sea
Ignacio Lillo
Malaga
Wednesday, 1 March 2023, 14:00
The Spanish government has taken a big step in the complex administrative process to allow a large offshore wind farm in the Alborán sea off the coast Fuengirola and Marbella. One of the first hurdles was the approval of the Maritime Space Management Plans (POEM) on Tuesday 28 February.
This step is important, as it clears the way for the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge to put out to tender applications from companies that will construct the wind farm. This step was scheduled for mid-2023, although it is likely to be delayed by a few months.
It is now known that the proposal for a location 13 kilometres from the coast has been ruled out. The approved alternative, at a distance of more than 22 kilometres offshore, will have far less visual impact.
The government's Offshore Wind Roadmap foresees the installation of up to three gigawatts of energy. In the case of the Costa del Sol, the project envisages that the turbines will be floating, and will cover an area equivalent to 30,000 football pitches.
When fully operational, the plant would have the capacity to supply more than the 649,000 homes in Malaga province, according to calculations provided by an expert in renewable energies from the University of Malaga. Other offshore plants are proposed in the Granada and Almeria provinces of Andalucía.
The group leading the initiative is IberBlue Wind, a consortium formed by the Irish company Simply Blue Group, which specialises in floating offshore windfarms, together with the Spanish companies Proes Consultores, the engineering division of the Amper Group, and FF New Energy Ventures, a developer of renewable projects. IberBlue Wind has submitted its Initial Project Document, which precedes the lengthy environmental processing phase.
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