Government launches public consultation prior to drafting offshore wind regulations

The Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (Miteco) has launched a public consultation prior to the design of the regulatory framework for the development of offshore wind and marine energy facilities, which will be open until June 22.

Royal Decree-Law 12/2021 paralyzed the processing of offshore wind installations until the approval of a new regulatory framework, since the previous one had become outdated in relation to the current situation of the technology and the evolution of energy regulation.

Currently, only facilities for testing, demonstration or validation of prototypes and new technologies associated with offshore wind can be processed.

To facilitate the development of the standard, Miteco raises questions such as what information is considered necessary to develop a project, what design criteria should be required, what parameters should be used to assess bids, or who should be the owner of the evacuation facilities.

Targets for 2030

The roadmap for national offshore wind, which already included the need to update the regulatory framework and was approved in December last year, has four lines of action and twenty measures to achieve between 1 and 3 GW of floating offshore wind power and between 40 and 60 MW of other offshore energy by 2030.

On the other hand, the Government is completing the processing of the "Marine Space Management Plans" (POEM), a zoning instrument in which, once the possible interactions with other uses of the sea have been analyzed, the most suitable areas for the development of offshore wind energy will be reflected, based on technical and environmental feasibility.