Offshore wind. Iberdrola, through AVANGRID, has been awarded the rights to develop and build a wind farm of up to 1,486 MW in the area known as Kitty Hawk, 24 nautical miles off the coast of North Carolina, in the United States.
With this award, Iberdrola will be able to apply its know-how to the development of United States emerging offshore wind sector, whose east coast meets optimal conditions as for depth and wind resource.
At the auction, held earlier this week and organized by the Bureau for Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Iberdrola’s offer managed to overcome those presented by the Norwegian company Statoil, the North American Wind Future and the German WPD Offshore Alpha.
Other companies short-listed for the tender such as the Canadian Enbridge and Northland Power and the wind power subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell decided not to participate at the last moment.
From now on, Iberdrola will have a period of one year to present a first assessment of the area’s wind potential to BOEM for approval, after which it will have 54 months to present the engineering project for the park construction and operation.
“With this award, Iberdrola becomes the world leading power company in the offshore wind sector, thanks to a well-designed and executed investment plan which it has been able to achieve, through an excellent team of engineers, and the experience necessary to compete successfully in a highly specialized sector, ” the company said in a statement.
Wind power, key to the future of the company
Iberdrola has made a firm commitment to the use of offshore wind as one of the key elements for the future of the company. The countries selected to develop its activity in this new business are at the moment United Kingdom, Germany, France and the United States.
West of Duddon Sands in United Kingdom
The company reached a milestone in 2014, becoming the first Spanish company to launch an offshore wind farm, the West of Duddon Sands (WoDS). Iberdrola developed this project through its British subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables and in consortium with the Danish company Dong, with a joint investment exceeding 1,600 million pounds.
WoDS has a power of 389 MW, which allow it to produce sufficient electrical energy to meet the demand of approximately 300,000 British homes. The marine park is located about 20 kilometers from Barrow-in-Furness, on the north-west coast of England and since commissioning has achieved extraordinary results, both in terms of production and availability in hours.
WoDS covers an area of about 67 square kilometers (km2) and its turbines, which have been supplied by the German company Siemens, have a unit capacity of 3.6 MW.
Wikinger in German
Iberdrola is currently building the Wikinger park in German waters of the Baltic Sea, which will involve an investment of around 1.4 billion euro and will have a capacity of 350 MW, meeting the needs of more than 350,000 German households and preventing the emission into the atmosphere of nearly 600,000 tones of CO2 per year.
The facility is located about 75 kilometers off the coast and will start operating from October 2017.
East Anglia One in England
Likewise, Iberdrola is getting ready to start construction next year of its third marine project, the 714 MW East Anglia One wind farm, which will supply clean energy to more than 500,000 English households. It is Spanish largest project in the renewable energy sector history and will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm when it enters into operation in 2020 following an investment of 2.5 billion pounds.
Siemens will be responsible for supplying 102 turbines with a unit capacity of 7 MW for this marine park. The turbines will be built in the German manufacturer´s new facilities located in the locality of Hull, northeast of England
In addition, Iberdrola has asked the British Government to expand this facility to 2,000 MW. To this end, it has submitted to the UK authorities a proposal to build the East Anglia Three Park, which would have 1,200 MW of power.
Sant Brieuc in France
These new facilities will be joined by Sant Brieuc (496 MW) in French waters, which is expected to start operating in 2022. This wind farm will have a capacity of 496 MW and will be located in the bay of Saint-Brieuc, in front of the French Brittany coast, 20 kilometers offshore and about 100 kilometers from the city of Rennes.
The marine park will have 62 last generation turbines of 8 MW, distributed over an area of 75 km², which being commissioned by Adwen, a company of Gamesa dedicated to the marine wind sector will have Spanish seal.
This facility, developed by Iberdrola in collaboration with the company RES and Caisse Des Dépôts, will be, once it comes into operation the company’s fourth offshore wind farm. The production of energy is expected to meet the electricity consumption equivalent to 850,000 inhabitants.
Iberdrola in the United States
The company has 6,900 MW of generating capacity in the United States, mainly wind and solar energy, and is building 1,800 MW of new land-based wind capacity, which is scheduled to start operation by the end of 2019.
AVANGRID, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, has assets valued at more than $ 31 billion and is present in 25 states with wind power generation and distribution businesses, serving approximately 3.2 million customers in the States of New York and New England.
