The Diplomat
The chairman of the energy company, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, has recognised the work of the employees of the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm, the first large-scale offshore wind project in Brittany and the second in France to produce clean energy, and the Baltic Eagle farm in the Baltic Sea.
The company stressed that, despite the problems of building it in the middle of the Covid, the project in French waters will be completed on schedule, with the installation work being completed this year.
Specifically, 51 of the 62 jackets and 35 of the 62 turbines have already been installed. In addition, after the test phase, the first wind turbines began supplying clean electricity on 5 July.
With an investment of 2.4 billion euros, ‘Saint Brieuc’ has a total capacity of 496 megawatts (MW) distributed among 62 turbines of 8 MW each. When fully operational, Saint Brieuc will produce 1,820 gigawatt hours (GWh) per year, enough to cover the energy needs of 835,000 people (including heating), which is equivalent to a population larger than the city of Valencia or almost as large as that of Marseille.
The ‘Baltic Eagle’ offshore wind farm, located in the Baltic Sea, has a capacity of 476 MW. It will have 50 wind turbines with a unitary power of 9.53 MW on monopiles, for an annual production of 1.9 terawatt hours (TWh), enough to sustainably meet the demand of 475,000 homes and avoid the emission of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere each year.
The manufacture of the components of this wind farm is practically complete, and some have even been completed ahead of schedule thanks to the work of a multidisciplinary team.
This wind farm, which is scheduled to come into operation at the end of 2024, has a minimum regulated tariff of 64.6 euros/MWh for the first 20 years. In addition, it has already sold 100% of its production under long-term contracts.
Iberdrola has 3,000 MW of offshore wind projects under construction or secured, with zero costs on the seabed thanks to the group’s pioneering position.
In addition to ‘Saint Brieuc’, the ‘Vineyard Wind’ offshore wind project in the United States is scheduled to come online in the last quarter of 2023. The ‘Baltic Eagle’ wind farm in Germany will be operational in 2024, and ‘East Anglia 3’ in the UK and Windanker in Germany will start production in 2026.
These projects will add to the current portfolio of 1,258 MW of operational offshore wind projects, including ‘West of Duddon Sands’ in the Irish Sea, ‘Wikinger’ in the German Baltic Sea and ‘East Anglia One’ in the southern North Sea.
