The Diplomat
Iberdrola has been the big winner of the UK offshore wind ‘mega-auction’, with the award of 7,000 megawatts (MW), whose development in Scotland will involve a total investment of 22,500 million euros, according to the company.
Specifically, the group chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galán has won the development of three large-scale projects; two with floating technology, which will be developed in partnership with Shell, and a third on a fixed structure. Galán stressed that these awards show the group’s commitment to Scotland and the United Kingdom”, reports Europa Press.
“Iberdrola is a global leader in offshore wind with more than 5,500 million euros invested in the United Kingdom, continental Europe and the United States, and plans to reach 30,000 million euros by 2030 thanks to the reinforcement of our current markets and the entry into several Asian countries. The huge investment opportunity that this technology represents requires the creation of partnerships, such as the one we have with Shell for these projects,” he said.
The areas awarded by the energy company could supply clean energy to almost 8.5 million homes, three times the number of homes in Scotland.
The projects are ‘MarramWind’, a 3,000 MW floating technology project off the north-east coast of Scotland to be developed jointly with Shell; ‘CampionWind’, a 2,000 MW floating technology project off the east coast of Scotland, also with Shell; and ‘MachairWind’, a 2,000 MW project with fixed foundations in waters off the Isle of Islay, in the Hebrides, west of Scotland, which is wholly owned by Iberdrola.
The ‘MarramWind’ and ‘CampionWind’ sites, located in deeper water than Islay, will become the world’s first large-scale floating offshore wind farms and will be the forerunners of a new industry sector led by Scotland and the UK.
The three projects, scheduled for commissioning from 2030, are part of the ‘ScotWind’ programme and involve that combined investment of around €22.5 billion, of which almost €12 billion has been committed to Scottish companies and institutions, including a Supply Chain Stimulus Fund of almost €90 million.
This was the largest tender carried out to date by the crown body, Crown Estate Scotland, with around 25 gigawatts (GW) up for grabs for a total of 17 projects.
Along with Iberdrola and Shell, other ‘big players’ in the oil sector have also been awarded contracts, such as BP, which has recently made a strong entry into the development of renewables, winning 2.9 GW together with Germany’s EnBW, and SSE Renewables, together with Maurbeni and CIP, with 2.6 GW.
With these projects, Iberdrola triples its offshore wind portfolio in the UK, which exceeds 10,000 MW. The energy company is a world leader in offshore wind energy development, with an operational capacity, pipeline and early-stage developments of approximately 37,000 MW.
The company expects to have 12,000 MW of offshore wind energy in operation by 2030 and accumulated investments of over 30 billion euros worldwide.
Iberdrola currently operates 1,258 MW in the United Kingdom and Germany, with an investment of more than 5,500 million euros, and has 4,100 MW under construction or with construction assured in the United States, France and Germany, with a committed investment of more than 15,000 million euros.
In addition, it has a project portfolio of 31,500 MW in the United States, the United Kingdom, Poland, Sweden, Ireland, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and Brazil, a portfolio that could increase in the coming years thanks to the numerous auctions in which the company is participating.
The potential investments associated with this portfolio of projects, many of which could mature beyond 2030, could be estimated at 90 billion euros.
Moreover, with these awards, the group reaffirms its commitment to boosting renewables in the UK, a key market for Iberdrola, where last week it announced the purchase of seventeen solar photovoltaic projects in the UK, with a combined capacity of more than 800 megawatts.
