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Acciona leads the €19.8 million project, backed by 18 other European companies from eight countries. The project forms part of HiPRWind, an R&D programme with 60% (€11 million) EU funding. The project will be part-overseen by floating turbine pioneers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The Biscay Marine Energy Platform (Bimep) will be located 1.7 kilometres from the Basque Country in 50-metre deep waters. It could be the first floating turbine in Spanish waters.

The 1.5MW turbine and 60m tower will be mounted on an anchored triangular structure. Each triangle corner, with a 30m separation, will rest on 20m-long submerged steel conical tubes.

Acciona, which is developing floating structures with Spanish naval group Navantia, claims it has reduced the floating structure weight by 40% since the initial design.

The company, also involved with Gamesa and Alstom both in the Zèfir offshore test station and the Azimut R&D project to develop 15MW wind turbine design software, reckons the cumulative global market for floating wind turbine structures could exceed €200 billion by 2030.