“Realistically, we could expect to have an auction awarded by mid- or late 2027,” Juan de Dios López Veiga , technical director of the Spanish Wind Energy Association (AEE), predicted during a conference on the situation of the offshore sector in Spain.
The statement comes as the country has accumulated more than 40 pre-projects for offshore wind energy in administrative processing , representing more than 20 GW of capacity, according to data from Energía Estratégica .
However, the sector is still waiting for the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) to define the final rules after the closing of the public consultation for the first auction plan on February 24.
From the AEE, the request is to accelerate the process , so López Veiga warned that the European Directive requires maximum processing times of two years, something that in Spain today "is difficult to comply with", and that companies need legal certainty.
On the other side of the coin, Carmen Roa Tortosa, head of the offshore wind area at IDAE , confirmed to the sector that "the Ministry is analyzing the allegations to take the next step."
What will it be? “To release the draft of the regulatory framework that will govern competitive bidding,” and the future framework order will define the power quotas, the areas to be tendered, and the evaluation criteria.
The contrast between these two discourses marks the current moment in the sector: the administration is moving forward step by step on the regulatory design, while the industry demands predictability so as not to slow down the pipeline of projects .
Even so, the two perspectives do not run in opposite directions: they also show areas of overlap.
An example of this would be the potential of the Canary Islands , which today function as the "spearhead" of offshore deployment .
The archipelago has six High Potential Zones (ZAPER) within the Maritime Space Management Plans (POEM) and currently hosts seven of the 19 demonstrator projects and test platforms funded by the Renmarinas Demos program.
Even when comparing the 2024 fossil fuel generation costs in the islands with an estimated auction price (based on UK Contracts for Difference, around 190 euros per MWh ), López Veiga argued that "there is talk of savings for the system of between 100 - 120 million euros per year for the whole of the State , " even taking into account the costs of carbon credits.
Ports, patents and talent: challenges to converting technological advantage into commercial offshore wind
The logistics link is another of the major issues at the meeting.
The IDAE representative puts on the table the recent resolution of the Port-Eol-Mar program, which injects 212 million euros in non-refundable funds to six state ports (with the Port of Las Palmas receiving 30 million) to adapt their docks and esplanades to the gigantic dimensions of the floating technology.
The non-negotiable condition is that these port works go hand in hand with a private industrial project with a minimum validity of 10 years.
However, the EEA welcomes the financial injection, although it doesn't miss an opportunity to issue a warning about human capital: " Where do we get factory workers, engineers? Where do we find pilots to operate and maintain the ships? "
According to the AEE representative, offshore deployment should be viewed as a complete ecosystem , where ports, industry, talent and regulation advance at the same pace to avoid disruptions in the value chain.
The contrast also appears on the technological level.
Spain does not yet have commercially installed offshore wind capacity, mainly due to the depth of its coasts, but it already occupies a relevant position in intellectual property linked to floating solutions.
López Veiga provided a key piece of information about the country's position: of the approximately 50 patents for floating designs that exist in the world, "14 currently belong to Spanish companies."
This research leadership aligns with one of the qualitative objectives of the government's Roadmap, championed by Carmen Roa: "to position Spain as a benchmark for R&D&I" and to consolidate a national value chain.