The European Commission (EC) has approved a Portugal project that supports 50MW of marine renewable energy demonstration projects, as it complied with EU's state aid rules.
So far 25MW of the scheme has been allocated to the Windfloat project, which involves demonstration of floating offshore wind turbines in real operating conditions. The wind turbines are mounted on a floating platform instead of columns fixed to the seabed, enabling the deployment of turbines in deeper waters. For the remaining 25MW, entities can file proposals until the end of the year. The selected entities will receive a 25-year state aid in the form of feed-in tariff (FiT) to compensate for the higher costs of the new technologies.
EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said: "The development of new renewable technologies is crucial to help Europe meet its environmental commitments.
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