Iberdrola to Build 400-Megawatt Windfarm in German Baltic Sea

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Spanish energy giant Iberdrola Renovables SA (OTC:IRVDY) (Valencia, Spain) will build a 400-megawatt (MW) windfarm in the German zone of the Baltic Sea.

Iberdrola has confirmed that it has bought the rights to construct the Ventotec Ost II windfarm from a joint venture comprising German companies Deutsche Erneuerbare Energien GmbH and Ventotec GmbH. The windfarm will be capable of hosting up to 80 turbines with generating capacities of 5 MW each. Each year, the windfarm will generate an estimated 1.2 gigawatt-hours. Iberdrola leads the world in offshore wind projects, and this latest project takes its global wind portfolio of finished, ongoing and planned projects to more than 12,000 MW.

According to Iberdrola, the Ventotec Ost 2 offshore wind complex is at "an advanced stage of the authorisation procedure," and is expected to be up and running by 2014. The German government has set a target of obtaining at least 10,000 MW from wind projects by 2020, and Iberdrola is establishing itself as a key player. Ventotec Ost 2 is located in the northern part of the priority wind area known as Westlich Adlergrund, which is about 40 kilometres from the nearest coastline, at the island of Rügen. Average water depth is approximately 39 metres.

Over the next two years Iberdrola expects to invest 9 billion euros ($12 billion) to drive international expansion in the wind sector. The company plans to spend 4.9 billion euros ($6.5 billion) in the United States, 1.9 billion euros ($2.5 billion) in the United Kingdom, 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in Spain, and 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion) in Germany and the rest of the world. In recent weeks, Iberdrola announced that it has created a new Offshore Wind Division in Glasgow, Scotland, to oversee its global wind operations. The division will be part of Iberdrola-owned ScottishPower Renewables, part of ScottishPower (Glasgow). For additional information, see March 8, 2010, article - Iberdrola Creates Offshore Wind Division in Glasgow to Promote Wind Power Projects.

Iberdrola, along with Swedish energy company Vattenfall AB (Stockholm, Sweden), was among the big winners in the U.K.'s recent Round 3 offshore wind contracts, which saw more than 25 GW of projects, worth more than £100 billion ($149 billion), up for grabs. Iberdrola and Vattenfall secured the East Anglia Array, located in the North Sea off the coast of Norfolk, which will have a capacity of up to 7.2 gigawatts and is projected to commence construction in 2015. For related item, see January 11, 2010, article -Winners of U.K. Offshore Wind Jackpot Revealed.

IIR's Renewable Energy Database provides extensive coverage on the Wind Energy, Geothermal, Hydroelectric, Landfill Gas-to-Energy and Utility-Scale Solar power plants throughout North America, and is now expanding coverage across the world.

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