The Diplomat
Iberdrola has awarded the joint venture formed by Navantia, through its renewable energy division Seanergies, and the Asturian company Windar, the construction in Fene (A Coruña) of 45 monopiles for an offshore wind farm, East Anglia 3, located in UK waters.
Through a statement, the public naval company assures that “this is the largest contract of this type of fixed foundations” for the UTE to date. According to its estimates, this order will involve a workload of “900,000 hours for 15 months and will start in June 2023”, in addition to generating “around 450 jobs between Navantia, Windar and workers from other companies”, and once this wind farm is commissioned, scheduled for 2026, “it will have a generation capacity of 1,400 megawatts (MW), reports Europa Press.
The monopiles will have a maximum length of 84 metres, weigh 1,800 tonnes and have a diameter of 10.6 metres. These foundations correspond to the East Anglia 3 wind farm, which is located within the East Anglia complex in British waters and for which Navantia and Windar have already built 42 jackets, also in the Perlío shipyard, and a substation, the latter in one of the work centres in the Bay of Cádiz.
“This contract is an important step for the Fene factory and for our participation in the offshore wind energy market, consolidating us as a manufacturer that can build the three types of foundations of an offshore wind farm”, according to Navantia’s president, Ricardo Domínguez.
For his part, the Asturian Orlando Alonso, CEO of Windar Renovables, said that “the new factory where this order will be produced allows the business alliance to provide a world-class service, of which Iberdrola will be the first beneficiary”.
With this new order, Navantia Seanergies-Windar strengthens its position in this product line and consolidates a relationship of more than nine years with Iberdrola, which totals contracts worth more than 1,000 million euros, with orders for its offshore wind farms in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the United States.