Iberdrola News

The U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday approved the country's eighth commercial-scale offshore wind project, which will be built off the coast of Massachusetts, bringing online electricity to power more than 900,000 homes.The approval for Avangrid’s New England Wind Project brings the U.S. one-third of the way to President Joe Biden's goal of permitting 30 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030—a key part of the president's climate change agenda.The project comes just a week after the Interior Department approved another offshore wind project, Orsted's Sunrise Wind, in New York.

Several offshore wind developers bid in a combined Connecticut-Massachusetts-Rhode Island offshore wind solicitation on Wednesday, including units of European energy firms Iberdrola and Orsted.The U.S. offshore wind industry is booming so far this year, with several projects in various stages of development and construction, after a disastrous 2023 of developers cancelling contracts and taking roughly $9.1 billion in write-offs and impairments on U.S. projects.So far, Avangrid…

Singapore's Temasek Holdings has shortlisted energy giants Shell and Saudi Aramco among a handful of companies to purchase most of the assets of liquefied natural gas (LNG) trading firm Pavilion Energy, sources with knowledge of the matter said.The sale process comes a decade after the state investment firm set up Pavilion Energy to focus on LNG-related investments, and takes place as spot Asian LNG prices LNG-AS have fallen more than 40% since mid-August, potentially weighing on the deal's valuation.Temasek is evaluating bids for the sale of Pavilion Energy's assets…

Several offshore wind developers will likely bid in New York's fourth offshore wind solicitation by the Thursday deadline, including units of European energy firms Orsted, Equinor and BP.The development of the U.S. offshore wind industry took a major blow last year when companies working in several states said they could no longer complete projects profitably because of rocketing construction costs, higher interest rates and supply chain snags. The problems also hit the wind industry in other countries.The development of the industry is key to meeting both U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S.

The U.S. offshore wind industry reached an important milestone on January 2 when Vineyard Wind 1, the country’s first large scale project, supplied first power to the Massachusetts grid.“As the nation’s first utility-scale offshore wind farm this is a fairly momentous event,” Ken Kimmell, Chief Development Officer for Avangrid, the Iberdrola subsidiary co-developing the project with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), told Reuters Events.The turbine will be joined by 61 additional turbines to provide 806 MW of power to the grid by the end of the year…

European energy firms Equinor and BP  terminated their agreement to sell power to New York state from their proposed Empire Wind 2 offshore wind farm, citing rising inflation, higher borrowing costs, and supply chain issues."This agreement reflects changed economic circumstances on an industry-wide scale and repositions an already mature project to continue development in anticipation of new offtake opportunities," Equinor said in a statement on Wednesday, in an apparent reference…

The U.S. offshore wind industry is eying a brighter 2024, with work expected to start on several projects following a year marked by stalled developments and billions of dollars in write-offs.The offshore wind industry is expected to play a major role in helping several states and U.S. President Joe Biden meet goals to decarbonize the power grid and combat climate change.But progress slowed in 2023 after offshore developers canceled contracts to sell power in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey…

Despite short-term obstacles driven by high inflation and interest rates coupled with supply chain issues, we maintain that the foundations supporting long-term offshore wind activity remain solid. As we prepare for the new year, let us look at 10 factors that will shape the offshore wind sector in 2024.1. A Continuously Dynamic Energy TrilemmaThe dynamic relationship of the three key drivers of affordable energy, energy security and energy transition was clearly evident in 2023 as energy affordability and security were generally more prominent themes than the transition.

Governments have decided to pay up to revive offshore wind farm developments after rising costs put at risk multiple projects that are needed to help them cut emissions and reach climate targets.Many countries are relying on a huge and rapid build-out of offshore wind farms which have high upfront costs but over the longer term can provide cheaper energy than fossil fuel plants.But some countries' wind power capacity targets started to look unrealistic this year after developers cancelled projects in the U.S.

International energy companies, from Germany's RWE to Spain's Iberdrola, are urging Japan to beef up offshore wind power auctions and make investments more attractive, amid soaring installation costs as competition for suppliers grows worldwide.Although desperate to ease its heavy dependence on energy imports from the Middle East and Russia, Japan is coming late to offshore wind, but some industry players say it is taking a more cautious approach that puts it at a disadvantage."It's a global race and we can't look at it in isolation…

Floating platform developer Gazelle Wind Power has appointed clean energy finance industry expert Álvaro Ortega as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).Ortega is the former Vice President of Finance at Avangrid Inc., a publicly traded company on the NY Stock Exchange and the U.S. subsidiary of global energy leader Iberdrola.“Finding someone with a track record like Álvaro’s is rare. Due to his financial expertise and passion for renewable energy, his joining the team is a home run for Gazelle as we enter an exciting phase in our company’s development,” said Gazelle CEO and Founder Jon Salazar.

European energy companies, including Denmark's Orsted, will likely write down more of their U.S. offshore wind investments this week after BP and Equinor booked $840 million in impairments in recent days.Orsted, the world's largest offshore wind developer, said in August it may see impairments of 16 billion Danish crowns ($2.3 billion) on its U.S. offshore developments due to supply chain problems, soaring interest rates and a lack of new tax credits.Orsted, which was not immediately available for comment…

A U.S. judge has rejected challenges to federal environmental permits and construction approvals for a $4 billion offshore wind farm near Massachusetts, which commercial fishing groups have claimed will harm whales and impair their businesses.U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston last Thursday tossed the final two federal district court lawsuits directly challenging the Vineyard Wind project roughly 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, which would be the first commercial…

Three U.S. states in New England - Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut - on Wednesday agreed to jointly procure offshore wind power as soaring interest rates and rising equipment and labor costs have made some projects uneconomic.By joining forces, the states hope to counter the pain rippling across the nascent U.S. offshore wind industry, which is expected to play a key part in decarbonizing the power sector and revitalizing domestic manufacturing.Earlier this week, another…

Dutch offshore installation services company Van Oord is set to start the cable installation works on Iberdrola's Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm in Germany."After Van Oord’s heavy lift installation vessel Svanen completed installation of all fifty monopiles for Iberdrola Deutschland’s Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm, Van Oord now continues installing transition pieces and starts cable installation. This week the inter-array cable loading onto Van Oord’s cable-laying vessel Nexus has commenced…

Avangrid, Inc., a U.S. offshore wind developer and part of the Spanish Iberdrola Group on Wednesday announced the start of the wind turbine installation campaign for Avangrid’s Vineyard Wind 1 project offshore Massachusetts, the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States. The installation campaign follows the transportation earlier this week of the first GE Haliade-X Wind Turbine Generator (WTG) from the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal to the wind energy development area more than 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.“Over the past year…

Avangrid, a U.S.-based subsidiary of the Spanish renewable energy giant Iberdrola, on Monday shared a photo of the completed Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind substation.This is the first offshore wind substation installed in the U.S. and will serve the country's first large-scale offshore wind farm - Vineyard Wind.DEME Offshore used its flagship vessel, Orion, to install the 3,000-ton Vineyard Wind 1 substation.The offshore substation serves to collect the generated electricity from 62 wind turbines and sends the power through an export cable and into the regional electricity grid.Once completed…

Spanish oil company Cepsa signed on Wednesday two agreements aimed at shipping green hydrogen between Spain and the Netherlands, a day after renewable energy giant Iberdrola took a similar step.The two Spanish companies are vying to become green hydrogen leaders, with planned investments worth billions of euros. The recent agreements will help them sell part of their expected production of green hydrogen and derivatives to industrial customers eager to decarbonize in Europe's economic powerhouse…

Spanish renewable energy company Iberdrola said this week it was making progress in the construction of Vineyard Wind I, the largest commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, with the receipt of the first shipment of components for the 62 wind turbines that will make up the farm at the port of New Bedford. Specifically, the shipment consisted of the tower sections, manufactured in Portugal. The components arrived in the U.S. aboard the heavy load carrier UHL Felicity.The…

As the world continues to scramble for renewable energy, floating offshore wind has emerged as a key capacity enabler in the coming decades. With no major commercial scale projects currently in operations, the segment is largely based on governments and developers ambitious project plans for the future. Nonetheless, this market segment can offer vast opportunities to the world of offshore support vessels in both near- and long-term prospects.In this piece, we will discuss the key opportunities and challenges related to offshore floating wind…

America may have only entered the offshore wind sector recently, but it is wasting no time in playing catch-up. The White House has set targets of 30 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 and 110 GW by 2050. The focus so far has centred on bottom-fixed installations, but the prospect of higher energy yields in deeper waters where the wind blows stronger and longer now beckon. The White House has also set a floating wind deployment target of 15 GW by 2035.From a standing start, there are immense challenges in America’s offshore wind development.

Commonwealth Wind said late Monday it will move forward with a submitted but not yet approved power purchase agreement with Massachusetts electric companies and its 1,232-megawatt offshore wind project.Commonwealth made its announcement after the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) denied, in early November, Commonwealth's motion to suspend its agreement. That motion raised questions about the future of Commonwealth's offshore wind project.Commonwealth is a unit of Avangrid Inc.…

Massachusetts utility regulators denied offshore wind power company Commonwealth Wind's motion to suspend its power purchase agreement with state electric utilities, raising questions about the future of Commonwealth's proposed offshore wind project.The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) said in an order on Friday that Commonwealth "is a sophisticated market participant well capable of factoring economic contingencies into its contract prices ... and exercising its options under the existing (power purchase agreements)."Commonwealth is a unit of U.S.