Portugal is poised to see three new “very different” wind energy projects installed offshore north of Nazaré.
Minister for the environment and climate action João Pedro Matos Fernandes explained the details in interview with TSF radio/ Jornal de Notícias.
These are projects “of large dimension, much larger than Windfloat”, he said – referring to the cutting edge initiative in Portugal, established back in 2019, capable of producing enough electricity to supply around 60,000 homes per year (click here).
In all, there are three separate requests for licences – and they will need to be done in collaboration with the Ministry of the Sea, said Mr Matos Fernandes.
The projects will be sited ‘north of the Nazaré canyon’ – the underwater anomaly that powers monster waves – alongside Figueira da Foz; and they will all be free-floating, “using a technology very different to everything we have seen so far, and with a great potential for growth in Portugal”, he said.
“We are, with our colleagues at the Ministry of the Sea, constructing a plan to be developed, knowing that, even before this plan is constructed, there already exist three requests for licenses”.
The licenses, by dint of being offshore, will be granted by the Ministry of the Sea – and there will then need to be separate licenses to connect the projects to the electricity grid (these to be granted by the environment/ climate action ministry).
As TSF/ JN explain, the minister’s announcement followed that of his secretary of State for energy (João Galamba) who said last week that the government has received “many manifestations of interest” for the development of offshore wind projects in Portugal.
The interest has meant that the government included offshore wind energy in new legislation for the electrical system, currently under public consultation.
