Iberdrola Renovables installs more wind energy in 2010 than any other utility

Close to 60% of capacity additions were in the US, where Iberdrola Renovables has commissioned 18 new wind farms with combined capacity of 1,043 MW.

Iberdrola Renovables put into service another 420 MW in Spain, 130 MW in the UK and 187 MW in the rest of Europe and Latin America.

Iberdrola Renovables built more renewable capacity in 2010 than any other utility in the world, bringing 39 new wind turbines facilities on stream in eight countries with total capacity of 1,780 megawatts (MW). This has helped strengthen the company’s status as the global leader in renewable energies by capacity and output.

Close to 60% of capacity additions were in the US, where Iberdrola Renovables commissioned 18 new wind farms in 2010 with combined capacity of 1,043 MW.

The concentration of a significant part of the company’s growth in the US, is due, among other factors, to the favourable regulatory environment there. To date Iberdrola Renovables has received $1,000 million in grants from the US government, which it will reinvest in further projects in the country. The company also entered into long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 700 MW of its wind farm output, ensuring revenues from these plants going forward.

The company also put into service an additional 420 MW in Spain, 130 MW in the UK and 187 MW in the rest of Europe and Latin America in 2010.

The company’s installed capacity in Spain now stands at 5,696 MW. It also has 342 MW of small-scale hydroelectric capacity in Spain, 50 MW at the Concentrating Solar Thermal Power in Puertollano, Ciudad Real, and 2 MW at its first forestry biomass power plant in Corduente, Guadalajara.

By region, the largest share of its installed capacity is in Castilla-La Mancha (1,981 MW), followed by Castilla-León (1,323 MW), Andalusia (803 MW), Galicia (627 MW), Aragon (278 MW), La Rioja (248 MW), the Basque Country (153 MW), Murcia (146 MW), Valencia (56 MW), Navarre (44 MW), Cantabria (30 MW), Extremadura (5 MW) and Madrid (1 MW).

Iberdrola Renovables’ capacity in the rest of the world stands at 1,270 MW. It has 293 MW in France, 255 MW in Greece, 161 MW in Poland, 106 MW in Mexico, 98 MW in Italy, 92 MW in Portugal, 63 MW in Germany, 86 MW in Hungary and 49 MW in Brazil.

It also has 932 MW in the UK, where it is now the leading developer and generator of onshore wind energy and from where it will head the future development of offshore energy technologies in Europe.

Iberdrola Renovables is present in 23 countries and has assets in operation in 12 markets: Spain, the United States, the UK, Greece, France, Poland, Italy, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, Brazil and Hungary.

Record output in 2010

The company produced a total of 25,405 kilowatt hours (kWh) at its plants in 2010, 18.2% more than the year before and its highest output ever.

Of the total, 24,519 million kWh were generated by the company’s wind farms, which continued to form the core of Iberdrola Renovables’ business, accounting for 96.5% of the generation mix.

The breakdown of wind output by country is as follows: 10,688 million kWh in Spain; 10,211 million kWh in the US; 1,438 million kWh in the UK and 2,181 kWh in the rest of Europe and Latin America. International generation in 2010 represented 54% of the total.

Meanwhile, the output of Iberdrola Renovables’ small-scale hydroelectric plants totalled 823 million kWh in 2010, with other technologies contributing a further 63 million kWh.

www.iberdrolarenovables.es