The Iberdrola Group will develop 16 new renewable energy projects in the UK after securing their profitability by securing Contracts for Difference (CfDs) with the UK government to ensure their financial viability.
CfDs are a financing mechanism that aims to encourage investment in new renewable technologies by guaranteeing promoters a fixed price indexed to the electricity produced by new installations, which makes it possible to meet the initial costs and ensure minimum long-term profitability, regardless of the volatility of the wholesale market.
Through ScottishPower, its UK subsidiary, the Iberdrola Group has won CfD contracts for its large 1,400 MW East Anglia Three offshore wind project, five onshore wind projects with a total capacity of 396 MW and ten photovoltaic solar sites with a total capacity of 326 MW.
The implementation of these initiatives, which will be carried out in Scotland, England and Wales, will almost double the company’s installed renewable capacity in this country, integrating a total capacity of more than 2,200 MW. .
Iberdrola thus became the company with the most renewable energy projects backed by the UK government in the fourth auction organized by the Department of Energy BEIS, the result of which was announced today. The projects selected during this cycle will be capable of producing 11,000 MW of electricity, including nearly 4,000 MW from offshore wind turbines.
This decision is an important support for the construction of the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm, which will require investments of around 4 billion euros. The site is one of three offshore projects that form part of the East Anglia Hub, a macro complex of offshore wind farms that will have an installed capacity of 2,900MW, enough to power 2.7 million UK homes with clean energy , and will involve an investment of approximately 12 billion euros. This infrastructure will be the Iberdrola Group’s largest offshore wind project in the world.
The success of this latest round of awards follows Iberdrola’s award of 7,000MW of offshore wind power in Scotland earlier this year, in the largest tender launched by Crown Estate Scotland nowadays. At this auction, the company won three large-scale projects, which will involve a total investment of 22,500 million euros: two, with floating technology, which it will develop in partnership with Shell, and the third on a fixed structure.
Just as the Iberdrola Group pioneered the development of onshore wind energy more than two decades ago, today the company is leading the development of offshore wind energy, one of the keys to the growth of the company, on which she began to commit 15 years ago.
Of the 4,000 MW of wind energy currently under construction, more than 2,500 MW (65%) correspond to offshore projects. Among them, Vineyard Wind 1 (806 MW), which will be the first wind farm on the scale commercial in the United States. In the United States, the group is also developing Park City Wind (804 MW).
In Europe, Iberdrola has two major offshore wind projects under development: Baltic Eagle (476 MW) in Germany, which will be part of the largest offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea, with 1,100 MW, and Saint-Brieuc (500 MW ) in Brittany, France.