The test platform for offshore wind energy prototypes will cost 80 million euros and should be built in December 2025.
The director of the Catalan Energy Institute (ICAEN), Marta Morera, has explained to this Jew that the experimental project, named Plemcat, has obtained a 30 million euro subsidy from the ‘Renmarinas’ call and has detailed that the the rest will be put by Climate Action through the Energy Research Institute of Catalonia (IREC), which is the body that will lead the execution of the project.
The platform will be used to test three prototypes of mills, the largest measuring 220 meters, and obtain information on viability, environmental impact or impact on biodiversity. Morera has stressed that the installation of commercial parks is practically a fact and that the results may “condition” the requirements for the implementation and “reduce” the possible negative impacts for the territory and the landscape.
The Minister for Climate Action, Food and Rural Agenda, David Mascort, has presided over the third meeting with mayors of the towns in Emporda affected by the Maritime Space Management Plan (POEM) which places the Gulf of Roses as an implementation area for the offshore wind energy Generalitat and municipalities have created a working group to draw up “the strategy” to “condition” the requirements that they want the State to include in the tenders for the commercial parks.
The testing platform, according to the deadlines set by the subsidy, should be built no later than December 2025. However, Morera points out that “it will be complicated” due to the complexity of the project processing, which like any procedure must obtain reports such as the environmental impact assessment, and that they could have to make an extension of half a year: “We will make every effort to have it and that, at most, it will be six more months.”
Morera has detailed that the test platform, which will be located at a distance of between 16 and 24 kilometers from the coast, works “like a large plug” in which up to four prototypes of windmills can be connected to evaluate how they work, what efficiency they have and what impact, both visual and environmental, they generate.
