The president of the United States, Joe Bidenaccompanied by the president of Iberdrola, Ignatius Galantoday visited one of the facilities that are part of the plan of the listed subsidiary of Iberdrola in the country for the construction of offshore wind projects in New England. The electricity company chaired by Ignacio Galán will invest 10,000 million dollars in it throughout this decade.
Biden met with Iberdrola chairman Ignacio Galán, accompanied by 25 American officials and businessmen. They were also joined by the President’s National Climate Advisor and former head of the United States Environmental Agency, Gina McCarthyand several Massachusetts congressmen.
President Biden made a point of highlighting the new energy policy of the United States and the support of his government for Iberdrola’s investments in North America.
Three offshore wind farms
All three offshore wind farms are already under construction or in advanced development, and all have long-term power sales contracts in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They will have a total capacity of 2,800 MWwill create nearly 11,000 new jobs and provide emission-free power to nearly 1.6 million homes and businesses.
The first of the three parks, Vineyard Wind, will be the first large-scale park in the United States and will begin generating power late next year. Thus, Iberdrola demonstrates its pioneering character in this sector in the United States.
[Iberdrola anuncia una inversión de más de 10.000 millones de dólares en Estados Unidos]
As part of the proposal made when the third of the offshore wind farms, Commonwealth Wind, was awarded, Iberdrola has committed to promoting Massachusetts’ first offshore wind power cable manufacturing facility on the land of a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts (Brayton Point), which Joe Biden visited today. The factory, which will create many local jobs, is expected to open in early 2026. and supply cables to Iberdrola Commonwealth Wind projects such as Park City Wind.
The first of three parks, Vineyard Wind, with 800 MW of installed power and an investment of 2,500 million euros, it is the first commercial-scale wind farm in the United States and one of Iberdrola’s largest in the world. Its construction, which officially began in November 2021, continues to progress and it is expected to start generating power late next year. With it, Iberdrola demonstrates its pioneering character in this sector in the United States.
Additionally, in December 2021, the company won a contract for the Commonwealth Wind offshore wind farm in Massachusetts. The 1,232 megawatt (MW) project, New England’s largest offshore wind project to date, it will represent an investment of 4,000 million dollars.
As part of the project, Iberdrola set out to develop Massachusetts’ first offshore wind power cable manufacturing plant on the grounds of a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts (Brayton Point).
The plant, which will create many local jobs, is expected to open in early 2026 and supply cables to Iberdrola Commonwealth Wind projects such as Park City Wind.
It is also developing Park City Wind in the same area, an 804 MW project that will provide clean energy to customers in Connecticut, At the same time, it will revitalize the Port of Bridgeport, which houses the operations and maintenance office and a construction component warehouse. The project is expected to be completed in 2027.
growth story
The story of Iberdrola in the United States is one of success. In less than two decades, the company chaired by Ignacio Galán has become, through its listed subsidiary in the country, Avangridin one of the largest groups in the North American electricity sector, listed since 2015 on the New York Stock Exchange. He helped make Iberdrola the most valuable company on the Spanish Stock Exchange with some 61,000 million euros of capitalization and in the first European energy company.
The firm is present in 25 states and manages over 9,300 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, including over 8,500 MW of renewables (primarily wind and solar PV), and over 170,000 kilometers of power lines through eight distributors in New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts.
In addition, the Spanish company has in the United States a portfolio of high-quality renewable projects of more than 22,000 MWwhich represent a stable platform for continued growth over the coming years as the country achieves its decarbonization goals.
In addition to being one of the three largest wind and solar energy companies in the United States, Iberdrola is a leader in offshore wind energy, with a portfolio of more than 5,300 MW at the end of the first quarter of 2022.
Iberdrola also owns the Kitty Hawk development area (2,500 MW), in the waters of North Carolina and Virginia, and has begun the process of obtaining permits from the Federal Office of Energy Management Marine (BOEM) for Kitty Hawk North (800 MW), the first proposed project in this area.
Thanks to the company’s commitment to renewable energy, Avangrid’s CO2 emissions intensity was already 6.5 times lower than the US utility average at the end of last fiscal year.