Socio-economic impact of a 200 MW floating wind farm in Gran Canaria

Abstract

This research analyses the economic impact of a 200 MW offshore floating wind farm in an isolated tourist-led region as the Canary Islands in terms of regional and national gross value added (GVA) and employment. After analysing the value chain of the offshore wind energy industry, the impact of the regional and national economy has been estimated using an input/output model. The main aim is to evaluate this impact in comparison to more industrialized region and to bottom-fixed offshore wind farms. The value chain analysis shows that the floating offshore wind capabilities in Spain are very high. Two different scenarios have been developed to take into account transfers of the value-chain between the regional and the national level. It is concluded that similar level of investment in the Canary Islands and in Mainland-Spain will lead to different impacts in the economy due to their different economic structures. The highly tourism-led Canarian economy, characterised by a marginal industrial sector and overdeveloped services one, will lead to an overall lower GVA and, at the same time, to a higher employment demand. Several indicators have been deployed using the results of this research that show the impact in tourist-led economies and also of floating versus bottom-fixed offshore wind farms. The GVA generated through the whole project is high, reaching 680 million euros at national level, which includes a regional contribution of 365 to 245 million euros, showing the high impact of the project in the national and local economy.