A Swedish company specialising in offshore wind platforms will continue developing a floating platform with 36 turbines in Maltese waters even though it did not qualify for EU funding.

Hexicon Ab has not been selected as a beneficiary of the NER300 programme, an EU co-financing scheme for renewable energy plants.

Nonetheless, the company, working with Maltese subsidiary Hexicon Malta, wants to forge ahead with the floating platform for wind and wave power.

“The offshore wind power project in Malta is developing according to plan and Hexicon is having a close and fruitful dialogue with the Maltese authorities,” company chief executive Anders Tunbjer said.

“We expect to take the next step in the project in the near future,” he added. Hexicon received more interest than it expected from investors and financial institutions, the company said.

The project is entirely unaffected by the European Commission’s decision and the company “will proceed as planned”.

“We are looking forward to continuing our close cooperation with the Maltese authorities towards finalising the necessary permits,” Mr Tunbjer said.

Several of the technical verification steps were carried out and the company was “establishing a good dialogue with potential builders platform” and people interested in financing.

The wind studies in the area show that the project “is still very interesting from an investor’s point of view”, he said.