Feasibility study for the installation of offshore wind farms in the Canary Islands

Abstract

The future of wind energy development in Europe and worldwide is undoubtedly the offshore wind farm. Spain is the second European country in installed wind power, with significant own technology, now Spain is preparing to begin the development of offshore technology with the release of specific legislation and an environmental analysis of the entire national coastline. At present there is no offshore farm in Spain, but in 2030 the MITyC wait that the power of wind farms will reach to 40 GW on land and 4 GW offshore. The Canaries are one of the best places in Spain in terms of value of the resource, but with a limited land area 7529 km2, a high rate of population (2,070,465 people in January 2008), a high degree of protected land 42.2% of the territory, and a huge dependence on foreign petroleum for 99% of energy consumed. You have to look to the offshore wind as an opportunity to extract energy without occupying valuable and scarce land, using own resource and diversifying the energy basket. Discusses the possibility to use this technology in each of the seven islands, establishing a procedure for identifying possible places and how the national rules affect us.