IBERDROLA has surpassed 8,000 megawatts (MW) of renewable capacity in Europe, solidifying its status as the benchmark for this type of energy on the continent. This installed capacity is enough to supply nearly four million Europeans and prevent the emission of around 14 million tonnes of CO2.
The company now has renewable facilities in 10 countries in Europe: Spain (with 5,840 installed MW), the UK (978 MW), Greece (257 MW), Hungary (158 MW), Germany (63 MW), Poland (184 MW), Portugal (92 MW), Italy (98 MW), France (293 MW) and Cyprus (20 MW, where it has built wind farms -the base of its business- and biomass, solar thermal and photovoltaic plants).
IBERDROLA is now the leader in wind energy in Spain, the UK, Greece and Hungary, and has ambitious projects in other countries; e.g. Romania and Poland. In onshore wind energy, this month IBERDROLA, through its Greek subsidiary Rokas, has brought on stream a wind farm in Aghia Anna, Cyprus. With installed capacity of 20MW, this is the first installation of its kind in Cyprus.
The company has also just commissioned the 24 MW Bystra wind farm in Poland. This increases its capacity in Poland to 184 MW, giving IBERDROLA a 17% share of the country’s wind market and bolstering its position as a leader in wind power in Eastern Europe. In this respect, IBERDROLA is currently focusing on expanding its renewable energies in Eastern Europe, where it has a project pipeline of 4,500 MW that will further consolidate its leadership in the region.
Projects in this part of Europe include the Dobrogea facility in the Constanza area of Romania. To be constructed between 2011 and 2017, this is the world's most ambitious onshore wind project to date and envisages the start-up of up to 50 farms with a combined capacity of 1,500 MW.
IBERDROLA has already started construction on phase one of this macro project, the 80 MW Mihai Viteazu wind farm, scheduled to be commissioned towards the end of 2011. The company has already signed an off-take agreement with the Romanian grid operator (Transeléctrica) setting the terms for connecting the planned 1,500 MW of new capacity to the national grid, including the agreement for the grid connection of phase one, encompassing 600 MW. This agreement envisages the largest volume of grid-connected wind power in Europe to date.
In Spain, IBERDROLA has managed to enter the Catalan and Asturian renewable energy sector, with the acquisition of four wind farms with a combined 128 MW of capacity.
Specifically, it has acquired the projects to build the Candal and Segregal wind farms from a number of local Asturian companies. With combined capacity of 78 MW, these projects are set to come on stream tentatively in 2012. The company has also entered the Catalan market, with the acquisition of the Conesa II and Savallá wind farms.The two facilities, which are already operative and have a combined 50 MW, are located in the province of Tarragona and have been developed by Gamesa.
IBERDROLA’s pipeline of renewable projects in Europe, the largest in the industry (35,000 MW), includes other technologies, such as offshore wind, wave and tidal energy. In this respect, noteworthy is the company’s commitment to off-shore wind, in which it has a pipeline of over 10,000 MW of projects in Europe. These operations are managed from Glasgow, headquarters of the Scottish Power Renewables subsidiary.
The company has recently begun developing its first off-shore wind project, West Of Duddon Sands, in the UK, which will have 389 MW of capacity. West of Duddon Sands marks the start-up of the company’s most important technological commitment ever in its drive to lead the future development of off-shore wind, considered to be the second renewables revolution. The projects feature East Anglia Array, to be developed jointly with Swedish company Vattenfall in English waters. This will be one of the world’s largest off-shore wind complexes, with 7,200 MW of capacity.
This initiative comes on top of others in Germany, Spain and the UK with a combined 2,500 MW of additional capacity. Noteworthy of these are the Wikinger project, entailing a 400 MW facility in the German zone of the Baltic Sea, and Argyll Array, in the UK, an offshore facility with potential capacity ranging from 500 MW to 1,800 MW. IBERDROLA, with renewable operations in 23 countries, is the world leader in its sector by both installed capacity –nearly 13,000 MW at June 2011- and output ‑over 15,000 million kilowatt/hour generated over the first half of 2011.