IberBlue Wind has announced a floating offshore wind farm off the coast of Figueira da Foz, Portugal. Called Botafogo, in honour of the Portuguese galleon that was built in the 16th Century, the wind farm will occupy an area of 359 km2 and will have 55 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 18MW, making a total of 990 MW of installed capacity.
The Botafogo offshore wind farm will be constructed on floating platforms anchored to the seabed allowing it to be located 30-50 km from the coast. IberBlue Wind is a joint venture between Irish company Simply Blue Group and the Spanish companies Proes Consultores and FF New Energy Ventures. It aims to develop at least 2GW of offshore wind capacity off the Iberian Peninsula using floating wind farms each of 500 MW or more. Figueira da Foz is one of the five areas proposed by the Portuguese government for offshore renewable energy exploration.