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Authorisation for trialling floating wind power in the Basque Country

New trials on new floating wind technologies by the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) have been approved to gain a detailed understanding of how the prototypes perform

Authorisation for trialling floating wind power in the Basque Country

The Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP), located off the coast of Bizkaia (Basque Country), has received the necessary authorisations to install and trial new floating wind technologies at its facilities.

  • BiMEP is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2020 with new global trialling capacities targeted at developers of offshore technologies, making it unique in Europe.
  • Basque industry is developing innovative projects in the area of offshore technology, which will contribute to meeting the decarbonisation goals set for the energy transition.

The main purpose of these trials is not so much to generate electricity but to gain a detailed understanding of how the prototypes perform, to introduce technological improvements that will allow their future introduction on the power market. It will also allow technology firms to develop and fine-tune strategies for controlling, operating and maintaining these systems, as well as enabling research into new methods to minimise the — already small — environmental impact of floating wind turbines. All of these factors are of great importance in ensuring the competitiveness of the new technology.