It will manufacture the 50 transition parts for the wind turbines of this offshore wind project, which will provide green energy to 475,000 homes.
Iberdrola has just closed the last key contract for the Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm (476 MW), the second large offshore wind project that the company is developing in the Baltic Sea (Germany), with the award of the foundations manufacturing contract to the Asturian company Windar and the German company EEW SPC.
Windar, in particular, will manufacture 50 transition pieces, which join the wind turbine towers to the foundations, while the German company will build the 50 monopiles that will support the wind turbines.
The main manufacture activities of the transition pieces will be carried out at Windar’s facilities in Avilés. Some 30 suppliers of the Asturian company in northern Spain, including steel production companies, components, equipment, testing and auxiliary machinery, will participate in the manufacturing process. The contract will generate 800 jobs, based on 1.3 million working hours. Fabrication is scheduled to start in October and work will continue until December 2022, with loading scheduled for Germany in early 2023.
This contract is in addition to the framework agreement reached a few weeks ago between Iberdrola and Navantia-Windar for the manufacture and supply of 130 XXL monopiles, as well as the other activities of the Asturian manufacturer in Iberdrola’s offshore wind projects in operation in Germany (Wikinger) and the United Kingdom (East Anglia One) and those that the energy company is developing in France (Saint Brieuc) and the United States (Vineyard Wind I).
The monopiles, with a diameter of between 9 and 8.75 meters, a length of between 75 and 90 meters and a maximum foundation weight of up to 1,402 tons, will be built at EEW’s megafactory in Rostock, located by the Baltic Sea. These components will be built between January 2022 and January 2023 and the start of loading is scheduled for April 2023.
With a capacity of 476 MW, Baltic Eagle will supply 475,000 households with renewable energy and avoid almost one million tons of CO2 emissions per year. The offshore wind farm will be fully operational by the end of 2024.
Iris Stempfle, Iberdrola’s country manager in Germany, explained that “companies with experience in offshore wind farms in five European countries will participate in its construction. We are very pleased that Iberdrola’s investments will contribute to Europe’s energy transition and socio-economic recovery. In addition to the significant job creation during construction, we plan to increase the number of operating and maintenance professionals in the port of Sassnitz-Mukran on the island of Rügen to service our offshore wind hub in the Baltic Sea.
THE BALTIC, EPICENTER OF OFFSHORE WIND DEVELOPMENT
The Baltic Sea concentrates a potential of 93,000 MW of offshore wind energy in Europe. In addition to Germany, countries such as Poland, Sweden and Estonia are exploring new opportunities for the development of this technology, in which Iberdrola is already an international benchmark.
By 2024, Iberdrola’s Baltic Sea renewable hub will have 826 MW operational (Wikinger with 350 MW in operation since 2017 and Baltic Eagle, with 476 MW) and will act as the company’s offshore and onshore service center, as well as providing local content for Iberdrola’s projects in the Germany-Poland-Sweden axis. In the German Baltic Sea alone, Iberdrola plans to increase installed capacity to more than 1,100 MW by the end of 2026.
German Baltic (Wikinger), the United Kingdom (East Anglia One) and Ireland (West of Duddon Sands), which it will double in the coming years, with projects in Germany (Baltic Eagle), France (Saint Brieuc) and the North American coast of Massachusetts (Vineyard Wind I).
The significant expansion of Iberdrola’s portfolio of offshore wind projects in the last twelve months – 20,000 MW by the end of the first quarter of 2021 – reinforced by new growth platforms, such as Japan, Poland, Sweden and Ireland, will enable the group to have 12,000 MW of offshore wind in operation by 2030.
WINDAR RENOVABLES
