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Iberdrola ships from Avilés 32 piles of the Wikinger offshore wind farm

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This facility is being built 75 kilometres off the German coast with a budget of 1,400 million euros. The second shipment will take place at the end of March, with subsequent shipments to follow between May and June.

Iberdrola has started the shipment to the Baltic Sea of the first 32 piles of the Wikinger offshore wind farm in the port of Avilés, which is being built 75 kilometres off the German coast with a budget of 1,400 million euros. According to sources from the energy company, the second shipment will take place at the end of March and the successive ones between May and June, in operations carried out by the Ferrol-based company Pérez Torres.

The joint venture between Navantia and the Asturian company Windar renovables is manufacturing 29 jacket-type foundations for this wind farm, which will generate enough energy to cover the electricity needs of more than 350,000 German households. The jackets are attached to the seabed using piles, huge steel cylinders 2.6 metres in diameter and weighing some 150 tonnes each, which are being built by the Asturian company Windar at its facilities in Avilés. These cylinders penetrate up to 40 metres into the seabed and each of the four legs of the foundations are fitted on them.

Windar, which is employing 60 workers to manufacture the piles, is a leading manufacturer of wind towers for wind turbines and offshore foundations. The wind farm, located off the German island of Rugen, will occupy an area of some 34 square kilometres, on which the company plans to install 70 5 MW wind turbines from Adwen, a joint venture between Gamesa and France’s Areva.

Wikinger will have a large offshore substation, which has an innovative design by the Iberdrola Group’s engineering and construction subsidiary and whose construction is at an advanced stage at Navantia’s facilities in Puerto Real (Cádiz).

The work in Puerto Real is now in its final phase, on schedule, and it is expected that the substation will be transported by ship to Germany in the coming months. In addition, the order to Navantia-Windar also included the construction at its shipyard in Fene, in the Ría de Ferrol, of 29 anchoring structures (jackets) to be installed in the same number of Wikinger wind turbines. This contract amounts to 90 million euros. This contract is one of the largest that Iberdrola has awarded to date to a Spanish company in the renewable energy sector and has allowed Navantia-Windar to enter a strategic market such as offshore wind power.

For the implementation of this agreement, a significant workload has been generated in both shipyards of Puerto Real and Fene, which has allowed the creation of about 700 jobs for the construction of the infrastructures.

IBERDROLA