The Whitelee wind farm is located south of Glasgow and currently has installed capacity of 322 megawatts (MW).
The wind energy project is part of the agreement with Alstom to install 250 of its wind turbines in nine of Iberdrola Renovables’ wind farms in Spain and the UK with a combined capacity of 500 MW
Iberdrola Renovables is to expand the capacity of its Whitelee wind farm by 217 megawatts (MW) to 539 megawatts using Alstom technology. The new capacity is slated to come on stream in 2012.
This expansion will cement Whitelee’s status as the largest wind farm in Europe. The project will use 69 Alstom ECO 100 wind turbines with a 3 MW capacity and six ECO 74 turbines with 1.67 MW capacity each. The farm will have an annual output the equivalent of the electricity consumption of more than 300,000 households and will prevent the annual emission of 840,000 tonnes of CO2.
The Whitelee wind farm is located south of the Scottish city of Glasgow and currently has installed capacity of 322 megawatts (MW). It is one of the world’s flagship wind farms and also houses Scotland’s first renewable energy learning centre.
The expansion of Whitelee is part of the agreement with Alstom to install 250 of its wind turbines in nine of Iberdrola Renovables’ facilities in Spain and the UK with a combined capacity of 500 MW These projects have transformed Alstom into one of Iberdrola Renovables’ key global partners.
Iberdrola Renovables already employs 85 MW of Alstom technology at its Badaia (Vizcaya), Almendros (Murcia) and Clachan Flats (Scotland) wind farms, while a further 98 MW are currently under construction at its Cruz de Carrutero, Fuentesalada and Los Collados facilities in the region of Castilla y León. An additional 315 MW will also be installed at its Whitelee (Scotland) and Peñaflor III and IV (Castilla y León) wind farms.
In addition, Iberdrola Renovables has recently agreed to build the eleven projects that have been presented in the new wind tender in Catalonia and which would add a power of 489 MW, with wind turbines supplied by Alstom.
In order to promote offshore wind technology in Spain and worldwide, the two companies have also agreed to collaborate in R+D+i, where it would use technology developed by Alstom.
The UK, a strategic market for Iberdrola Renovables
The UK, along with the US, will be the key market for Iberdrola Renovables in the coming years, with a particular focus on offshore wind energy projects.
Iberdrola Renovables will head the future development of offshore energy technologies in Europe, regarded as the second renewables revolution. At the start of 2010 the company created an Offshore Business Division in Scotland to channel the development of the large volume of marine wind power projects awarded to the company. These amount to around 10,000 MW worldwide and will be added gradually to its project pipeline.
Specifically, in partnership with Vattenfall, Iberdrola Renovables has obtained the rights to build one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms in the UK (7,200 MW), able to supply five million households.
In addition, the company has 2,300 MW under development in the UK, including the 500 MW West of Duddon Sands facility (developed in conjunction with Dong). Construction of this wind farm is scheduled to get underway in 2012.
The company, via its subsidiary ScottishPower Renewables, is already the leading developer and generator of onshore wind energy in the UK with installed capacity of 816 MW.
With operations in 23 countries, Iberdrola Renovables is the world leader in wind energy by both installed capacity (more than 11,400 MW at the end of the first half of 2010) and output (close to 13,000 million kWh in the first half of 2010).
