The renewable energy we get from the sea is already reaching our homes: what is offshore energy?

Science Bits – Episode 49

Listen to the episode.

Researcher: Bernardo Silva, researcher at INESC TEC and lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto

Keywords: EU-SCORES, offshore renewable energy, hybrid production

Let’s start with a small trip down memory lane: in 1991, the Vindeby – the world’s first offshore wind farm – began operating in Denmark. With 11 turbines and an installed capacity of five megawatts, this farm could supply energy to 2200 Danish homes. The success of Vindeby’s operation marked a turning point in renewable energy production, particularly in terms of offshore operations.

Nearly 30 years later, in 2020, the WindFloat Atlantic started operating in Portugal – the world’s first semi-submersible floating offshore wind farm, located off the coast of Viana do Castelo. WindFloat Atlantic features three wind turbines, three floating platforms, an installed capacity of 25 Megawatts, and supplies electricity to 25,000 Portuguese homes annually.

But what if we could further explore these offshore infrastructures to produce energy from more than one source – combining, for example, wind and solar power? In Europe, there are already several projects testing this hybrid approach – one of them is EU-SCORES, featuring INESC TEC.

To learn more about this project and associated impact on renewable energy production across Europe, we’ve invited Bernardo Silva, researcher at INESC TEC and lecturer at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, to join us for this conversation.