The money comes from the country's carbon fund and will be issued in tranches to 2020. The agreement is conditional on Principle Power — a consortium consisting of EDP and Repsol — hitting a series of pre-agreed targets.
Windfloat phase 2 has already been awarded EUR 30 million in European Union NER300 funding. It is planned for a site 20 kilometres off Viana do Castelo, northern Portugal, at a depth of between 85 and 100 metres.
Additional funding sources for the EUR 100 million project are being sought, with a view to bringing it online in 2017. The next phase will see it install and bring online three or four floating towers with a total capacity of 25MW.
The 2MW pilot phase came online in 2012 and features a Vestas V80 2MW turbine. The Windfloat design is a semi-submersible platform consisting three pillars with one of these holding the turbine tower.
