The Diplomat
Iberdrola has been awarded 50 of the 300 megawatts (MW) of onshore wind power auctioned in Poland, representing 17% of the total auctioned, the company said yesterday.
In this way, the energy company chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galán boosts its commitment to renewables in Poland, where it already has a local development team, bringing its onshore wind capacity operational and under development in the country to 163 MW, after recently completing its agreement with CEE Equity Partner, signed in March. The agreement included the acquisition of two operational wind farms, with 112.5 MW of capacity, and access to a third, with 50 MW, confirmed in this latest auction.
Iberdrola already has a portfolio of seven offshore projects, with a potential capacity of up to 7,300 MW, following the recent acquisition of 70% of the developer Sea Wind.
The company is working on the implementation of the Sea Baltic Hub, a renewable offshore and onshore wind services hub, as well as providing content for Iberdrola’s projects in Germany, Poland and Sweden. The Baltic Sea has an offshore wind development potential of 93,000 MW, of which 28,000 MW would be located in Polish waters.
The energy company said that participation in the Polish auction is in line with its strategy of positioning itself in new renewable growth platforms, and following the dozen corporate operations carried out in the last year in countries such as Australia, France, Japan, Sweden and Ireland.
One of the company’s major growth poles for the coming years will be offshore wind, where Poland has ambitious plans, as it aims for 23% of its energy mix to come from clean energy by the end of the decade, for which the country plans to commission 8,000 MW of offshore wind power.
In global terms, Iberdrola’s offshore wind portfolio totalled 20,000 MW at the end of the first quarter of the year, based on these new growth platforms that will enable the group to reach an installed offshore capacity of 12,000 MW by the end of the decade.
