The Diplomat
Iberdrola has been awarded the contract to supply the ‘Commonwealth Wind’ offshore wind farm in the United States, located in Massachusetts, which will require an investment of 4 billion dollars (3.55 billion euros), the company said yesterday in a statement.
The project will have a capacity of 1,232 megawatts (MW), create 11,000 jobs and supply 750,000 homes, according to Iberdrola’s calculations. The award has been made by the state of Massachusetts to the Spanish energy company’s subsidiary in the country, Avangrid.
“Commonwealth Wind will provide clean energy to hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts homes and businesses, creating thousands of local jobs throughout the supply chain. It will also be a key project in helping the United States reach its goal of 30,000 MW of offshore wind power by 2030,” said Iberdrola Chairman and CEO Ignacio Sánchez Galán.
Through this project, the Spanish listed company has committed to invest 15 million dollars (13.3 million euros) in workforce training and supply chain development. It will also invest a further $20 million (17.8 million euros) in initiatives related to “education, innovation and the environment for the benefit of local communities”.
“Having invested $15 billion in 8,000 MW of wind, onshore and solar, we are already leading offshore wind in the US with the development of Vineyard Wind One and Park City Wind. With 15 years of experience in delivering projects around the world, Iberdrola and Avangrid are working hard to ensure that our investments are transformative for the environment and the economy, creating wealth and jobs. Our portfolio of offshore wind projects in the United States alone could represent more than $15 billion of investment in the coming years,” the statement added.
Commonwealth Wind includes two innovative initiatives that transform former coal-fired power plants into clean energy centres. Massachusetts’ first submarine cable factory, operated by Prysmian, will be located at Brayton Point in Somerset, and a new offshore wind project terminal will be built in Salem Harbor to serve the Park City Wind and Commonwealth Wind projects.
Both initiatives will create new permanent jobs across Massachusetts and bring this new sector to life.
Massachusetts plans to have 4 gigawatts (GW) of contracted offshore wind capacity by 2027 and 5.4 GW operational by 2035. Of the 1.6 GW already under development, 0.8 GW has been awarded to Iberdrola in the Vineyard Wnd One project. Together with the project announced this Friday, the energy company has more than 2 GW committed in Spain.
Iberdrola has also indicated that this award places the company as one of the three largest renewable energy companies in the United States. In the US, it will invest more than 30 billion dollars (26.625 billion euros) for the period 2020-2025 in transmission, distribution and renewable energy networks.
Iberdrola has already installed more than 8 GW in the country and has 170,000 kilometres of power lines. It also manages eight utilities in several states in the country, serving seven million people.
