IberBlue Wind Conference: Meeting with stakeholders in Viana do Castelo (Portugal) Creoula project

On the 18th of May, the Portuguese town of Viana do Castelo hosted a conference called  “Floating offshore wind energy in the Northern region of Portugal – CREOULA Project”, a meeting promoted by IberBlue Wind. This meeting aimed to analyze the opportunities offered by offshore wind energy in the region, publicize its proposal in this matter, as well as the Creoula floating offshore wind development that IberBlue Wind is proposing in the region. The goal of this event was to act as a space for dialogue with the different stakeholders including representatives of the academic world, non-governmental associations, industry, the environment, tourism and fishermen's associations in the area.

In this sense, IberBlue Wind presented "Creoula", the largest floating wind farm projected in Portugal that will have a capacity of 1,440 MW, produced from 80 turbines of 18MW each. A project that, together with the Juan Sebastián Elcano project – located off the coast of Pontevedra (Galicia) – forms part of the first cross-border development in southern Europe and together will offer a proposed capacity of 1.96 GW.

The act had important institutional support, through the president of the Municipal Chamber of Viana do Castelo, Luís Nobre. During the inauguration of the act, the head of the town highlighted the commitment of the local authorities to renewables and defended the viability of an offshore wind activity aligned with the interests of other sectors.

Next, the Director of IberBlue Wind Portfolio, Dorleta Marina, addressed the opportunity that the production of offshore wind energy represents in the Portuguese energy transition, underlining its driving role in the socioeconomic revitalization of the areas of influence, due to its capacity for generation of employment and the necessary improvement of the infrastructures that this entails.

In her speech, Marina stressed that when designing, building and operating all its projects, IberBlue Wind is committed "to working together with civil society, coastal communities, government and industry, with the aim of benefiting the region, and most importantly always respecting the environment”. In addition, she expressed her desire to "establish a collaboration channel with the industrial and business fabric of the area, to detect opportunities and align interests."

On the other hand, she positively valued the commitment of the Portuguese Government to offshore wind, and assured that "this position can make Portugal become one of the leading countries in the development of this new source of energy that is destined to be one of the the main energy vectors of the future”.

The final part of the meeting was directed by Tiago Morais, head of Floating Offshore Wind Development in Portugal at IberBlue Wind, who focused on disclosing the details of the project and answering questions from the attendees.

In addition, he highlighted the experience of the consortium, key in a market like the Portuguese one, which has decided to face the challenge of becoming a benchmark in offshore wind development with determination.

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