Iberdrola outlines Scottish offshore wind ambitions

Iberdrola Renovables, the renewable energy arm of the Spanish energy giant, has this week announced the formation of a new offshore wind division to be headquartered in Glasgow as the company strives to become the largest developer and generator of offshore wind power in the UK.

The new division will be headed by Keith Anderson and will be incorporated into ScottishPower Renewables, the company's UK business unit, which is also headed by Anderson.

The unit is expected to primarily focus on the development of the Norfolk Bank zone, which is expected to home one of the world's largest offshore wind farms with capacity of up to 7,200MW.

The company will undertake the project through a 50/50 joint venture with Swedish offshore wind farm developer Vattenfall called East Anglia Offshore Wind, which was selected to develop the zone as part of the government's recent Round 3 offshore wind farm awards.

Construction of the wind farm, which is expected to produce enough power for five million homes, is due to start in 2015.

Iberdrola Renovables also has other offshore wind projects under way across the UK, including a 500MW site at West of Duddon Sands off the coast of Cumbria, which will begin construction in 2012, and development rights to a site west of Argyll and the island of Tiree, which it claims could generate anywhere between 500MW and 1,800MW of electricity.

The formation of the new division comes just weeks after ScottishPower Renewables announced it had nearly doubled wind output from its 23 operational wind farms in 2009 and produced just over 1.7 million megawatt hours of electricity, marking a 43.8 per cent increase on 2008.