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Iberdrola’s record global offshore wind drive continues to move forward at pace as the company has announced that the €1 billion Windanker project in Germany has advanced to the delivery phase. All supply chain contracts for major components are now locked-in for the 315-megawatt (MW) project and fabrication work is set to get underway next month (July 2024).

The Windanker project will support more than 1200 jobs in construction, working with 130 different suppliers located across 22 countries. A total of 20 vessels will be involved in delivering the project. As a leader in offshore innovation, Iberdrola has selected to use 21 next-generation offshore wind turbines, each with an output of around 15 megawatts (MW) – amongst the most powerful available on the market.

In a record year for Iberdrola’s offshore wind activity, the company has recently fully energised the 496 MW Saint-Brieuc project in France and achieved first power generation at both the 804 MW Vineyard Wind 1 project in the US (the country’s first large-scale offshore wind project), and the 476 MW Baltic Eagle project, also in Germany. Beyond this, Iberdrola has started the construction of the East Anglia THREE offshore project in the UK – the company’s largest ever wind energy project globally with a capacity of 1,400 MW.

Of the €15.5 billion to be invested in renewables as part of Iberdrola’s strategic plan up to the end of 2026, around €8.4 billion (54% of the total) is being committed to offshore wind. This will help the company to grow its offshore wind capacity by more than 160% in just three years, from 1,800 MW in 2023 to 4,800 MW in 2026.

Windanker will be fully commissioned in 2026, with 100% of its generation already sold to industrial and commercial customers through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). It will produce enough clean energy to meet the equivalent demands of 315,000 households per year while reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 500,000 tonnes per year.

Ignacio Galán, Executive Chairman of Iberdrola, said: “This positive progress on Windanker is another pleasing milestone for Iberdrola in our most active year ever for delivering offshore wind. In 2024 we have been constructing major projects in four countries, including two now active in Germany, with billions of euros being invested to support thousands of jobs across hundreds of suppliers in dozens of countries.

“Offshore wind is a key technology for our clean energy growth in the years ahead, with all capacity from these projects secured via long-term PPA contracts or supported by government mechanisms. All our construction activity across the world is progressing well, and we look forward to adding Windanker to our portfolio of operational projects by the end of 2026.”

Windanker is one of three large-scale projects in Germany that will form part of Iberdrola’s “Baltic Hub”. The company already operates the 350 MW Wikinger wind farm and is finishing the construction of the 467 MW Baltic Eagle project (a joint venture with Masdar), which will be completed in 2024. Together, these offshore wind farms will have a total capacity of more than 1.1 GW in 2026, with combined investment of around €3.7 billion.