A case study of floating offshore wind park in the Mediterranean

Abstract

This work presents a case study of floating offshore parks in the Mediterranean Sea. There are several constraints that determinate the location of the park: the availability of a sufficient wind resource, environmental laws, sea routes, the seabed depth (what will condition the whole project), the proximity of the necessary infrastructures and a social constraint. The Mediterranean seabed depth conditions the structure of the wind farm, which consists of the selection of the most adequate platform, the configuration of the mooring lines of those platforms, the type of wind turbine to install and their layout. The calculation of the power production is based on SIMAR data set, supplied by Puertos del Estado. A study of the wake effect produced by wind turbines based on the Jensen’s model has also been carried out. The power extraction system consists of three parts: a 33 kV line for the inter-array cables, an offshore substation located in the middle of the wind farm and a 220 kV line for the connection to shore. The conclusions obtained from this study are clear: this kind of projects are available in our country, and they are quite profitable if they are structured properly, though its profitability is lower than in other countries. In any case, there is still quite uncertainty concerning to that, a fact mainly motivated by the lack of a specific legislation in Spain.