Offshore staff
BILBAO, Spain — The Iberdrola group will develop 16 new renewable projects in the UK after guaranteeing its profitability by obtaining contracts for difference (CfDs) with the British government that ensure its financial viability.
CfDs are a financing mechanism that seeks to encourage investment in new renewable technologies, by ensuring that developers have an indexed fixed price, which allows them to meet the initial costs and guarantee a minimum profitability in the long term, regardless of the volatility of the wholesale market.
Through ScottishPower, its subsidiary in the UK, the Iberdrola group has won CfD contracts for its large 1,400-MW East Anglia Three offshore wind project; five onshore wind projects with a combined capacity of 396 MW; and 10 solar photovoltaic sites with a total capacity of 326 MW.
The implementation of these initiatives, which will be carried out in Scotland, England and Wales, will almost double the company's renewable installed capacity in this country, incorporating a total capacity of more than 2,200 MW.
In this way, Iberdrola has become the company with the highest number of renewable projects supported by the UK government in the fourth auction held by the Department of Energy BEIS. The projects selected in this round will have 11,000 MW of installed capacity, of which almost 4,000 MW correspond to offshore wind energy.
This decision is an important support for the construction of the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm, which will involve investments of about 4,000 million euros. This site is one of three offshore projects that are part of the East Anglia Hub, an offshore wind macrocomplex that will add an installed capacity of 2,900 MW, enough to supply clean energy to 2.7 million British homes, and it will involve an investment of approximately 12,000 million euros. This infrastructure will be the largest offshore wind project of the Iberdrola group worldwide.
The successful result in this latest round of allocations follows the award of 7,000 MW of offshore wind power achieved by Iberdrola in Scotland at the beginning of the year in the largest tender to date by the Crown Estate Scotland. In this auction, the company acquired three large-scale projects, which will involve a total investment of 22,500 million euros: two with floating technology, which it will develop in partnership with Shell, and the third on fixed structure.
Of the 4,000 MW of wind power currently held by the construction company, more than 2,500 MW (65%) correspond to offshore projects. Among them will be the first commercial-scale wind farm in the US, Vineyard Wind 1 (806 MW). The group also promotes Park City Wind (804 MW) in the US.
In Europe, Iberdrola has two major offshore wind projects under development: Baltic Eagle (476 MW) in Germany, which will be part of the largest offshore wind hub in the Baltic Sea with 1,100 MW, and Saint-Brieuc (500 MW) in Brittany.
07.07.2022
