Iberdrola Inaugurates Wikinger Offshore Wind Farm
Iberdrola inaugurates the wind farm of Wikinger, located in Germany in the waters of the Baltic Sea, with an investment of 1,400 million euros.
In its development have participated companies like the Asturian Windar, with the construction of 280 piles of 40 meters in length, as well as the Danish Bladt and the Spanish Navantia, which have made the 70 foundations (‘jackets’) – a large part in Fene, or Adwen, which has been in charge of the wind turbines.
With an output of 350 megawatts (MW), Wikinger has been a challenge for Iberdrola, a leader in offshore wind power development, and which has counted for the construction of the pieces with the shipyard of Navantia and with Windar.
Wikinger is the second offshore wind power project in operation of Iberdrola, following the wind farm of the West of Duddon Sands (WoDs), jointly owned by the Danish Orsted and which was launched in the Irish Sea in 2014 with a capacity of 389 MW after an investment that exceeded 1,600 million pounds (about 1,800 million euros).
Connected since the end of last year to the German power grid, where it allows the supply of renewable energy to some 350,000 German homes from the North-West coast of the German island Rügen, the wind farm brings together the main axes of Iberdrola’s strategy, such as the strong investing bet for the development of renewable energies, technological innovation, international growth, commitment to reducing emissions or opening new businesses and markets to its suppliers.
The wind energy project since 2,000 jobs have been created for the construction in the port of Mukran and in the factories where all its components have been built, both in Germany and in Spain.
The offshore wind energy is one of the keys to growth for the group chaired by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, a sector in which he is investing heavily in the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States and France, mainly.
In the United Kingdom, with its first wind power project of West of Duddon Sands (WoDS), it is developing the ‘macroproject’ of East Anglia One (EAO), which will have an investment of 2,500 million pounds (about 2,800 million euros) and which will be one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world when it starts operating in 2020 with 714 MW.
In Germany, Wikinger is the first stone in the growth of this wind energy technology in the country, which will continue with the recently awarded projects of Baltic Eagle (476 MW) and Wikinger Süd (10 MW).
Likewise, Iberdrola also has in France under development the Saint-Brieuc wind power project, located 20 kilometers offshore off the coast of French Brittany, in the north of the country and about 100 kilometers from the city of Rennes. The marine wind farm will have 62 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines of 8 MW capacity.
In the United States, the group will make its landing in offshore wind energy and through Vineyard Wind, a 50% partnership with the Copenhagen Infraestructure Partners (CIP) fund that will develop 800 MW in Massachusetts waters.
