The Diplomat
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, accompanied by the Chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, visited on Wednesday one of the facilities that form part of the plan of Iberdrola’s listed subsidiary in the country for the construction of offshore wind projects in New England. The Spanish electricity company will invest 10 billion dollars in these projects over the course of this decade.
Biden, who thus demonstrated his backing for the new US energy policy and his support for Iberdrola’s investments in his country, met with Galán, accompanied by 25 US authorities and businessmen. They were also accompanied by the President’s National Climate Advisor and former head of the US Environmental Agency, Gina McCarthy, and several members of Congress from Massachusetts.
Three offshore wind farms are already under construction or advanced development, all of which have long-term power sales contracts in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They will have a total capacity of 2,800 MW, create nearly 11,000 new jobs and provide emission-free power for nearly 1.6 million homes and businesses.
The first, Vineyard Wind, with 800 MW of installed capacity and an investment of 2.5 billion euros, is the first commercial-scale wind farm in the United States and one of Iberdrola’s largest in the world. Its construction, which officially began in November 2021, continues to progress and is expected to start producing energy by the end of next year. With it, Iberdrola is demonstrating its pioneering nature in this sector in the United States.
As part of the proposal made in the award of the third of the offshore wind farms, Commonwealth Wind, Iberdrola committed to promoting Massachusetts’ first offshore wind cable manufacturing facility on the site of a former coal plant in Somerset, Massachusetts (Brayton Point), which Joe Biden visited. The factory, which will create numerous local jobs, is expected to open in early 2026 and supply cables to Iberdrola Commonwealth Wind projects such as Park City Wind.
In less than two decades, the company chaired by Ignacio Galán has become, through its listed subsidiary in the country, Avangrid, one of the largest groups in the North American electricity sector, listed since 2015 on the New York Stock Exchange. It has contributed to making Iberdrola the most valuable company on the Spanish stock exchange with a market capitalisation of 61,000 million euros and the leading European energy company.
The company is present in 25 states and manages more than 9,300 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, of which more than 8,500 MW of renewable energy (mainly wind and solar photovoltaic), and more than 170,000 kilometres of power lines through eight distributors in New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts.
The Spanish company has a portfolio of high-quality renewable projects in the United States of more than 22,000 MW, which represent a stable platform for continued growth over the next few years as the country meets its decarbonisation targets.
In addition to being one of the three largest wind and solar energy companies in the United States, Iberdrola is a leader in offshore wind, with a portfolio of more than 5,300 MW at the end of the first quarter of 2022.
