- The new Haizea Bilbao manufacturing plant, whose foundation stone was laid today by the Basque First Minister, Iñigo Urkullu, the Chairman of Haizea Wind Group, Dámaso Quintana, and the Chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, will fabricate 50 monopiles for East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom.
- The agreement will contribute to create 350 direct jobs for one year and represents an important recognition of the technological and productive capacities developed by Haizea Wind Group over the past five years.
- ScottishPower’s East Anglia Three offshore wind farm will have 1.4 GW capacity and will supply clean energy to more than one million UK homes.
- The expansion works of Haizea Wind manufacturing plant in the Port of Bilbao have just begun and will involve an investment of more than €150 million.
Scottish Power, an Iberdrola group company, and Haizea Wind Group, a world leader in the manufacture of wind towers, have today signed a framework agreement worth over €200 million for Haizea Bilbao to supply 50 monopiles to the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom from its facilities in the Port of Bilbao.
Also today, the Basque First Minister Iñigo Urkullu, the Chairman of Haizea Wind Group Dámaso Quintana, and the Chairman of Iberdrola Ignacio Sánchez Galán, together with other authorities, have laid the first stone of the new manufacturing facilities, which will require an investment of more than €150 million.
At present, the Group’s manufacturing plant in the Port of Bilbao, Haizea Bilbao, has 48,800 square metres and 500 workers. After signing this latest contract with Iberdrola, Haizea Bilbao’s plant will now be enlarged to over 200,000 m2.
This expansion has meant broadening the scope of the existing concession granted by the Port Authority. In addition to the three existing warehouses, Haizea Bilbao will build another three, and a new additional storage area to accommodate the monopiles before they are delivered to the transport vessels. In addition, the agreement will result in the creation of some 350 direct new jobs at Haizea Bilbao.
With this agreement, Haizea Wind Group secures a workload in Bilbao in excess of €1.5 billion for the next 4 years which represents an important recognition of its technological and manufacturing capabilities. The 50 monopiles that Haizea Wind Group will fabricate for Iberdrola will be used to support the wind turbines of the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom. In total, this wind farm will have a capacity of 1.4 GW and will supply clean energy to more than one million British homes.
As per the agreement signed with Iberdrola, Haizea Bilbao will be responsible for the supply of materials, the engineering of the manufacturing process and monopile production. This contract and the expansion of Haizea’s capacity in the Port of Bilbao are in line with Haizea Wind Group’s strategic growth plan with the aim of becoming a key player in the offshore wind energy value chain and, specifically, securing a relevant position within the offshore foundation supply and manufacturing industry.
The agreement with Iberdrola, one of the market leaders in operational offshore wind power, confirms the soundness of the plan developed by Haizea Bilbao over the past few years to position itself as one of the main manufacturers of offshore wind structures (towers and foundations) while consolidating the group’s commitment to becoming one of the main global suppliers to the wind industry. The Port of Bilbao will also strengthen its position as one of the most important offshore wind hubs in Southern Europe.
The Haizea Bilbao expansion works will be carried out by the Basque company Amenabar.
Iberdrola, world leader in offshore wind energy
Iberdrola is one of the world’s leading offshore wind energy operators and one of the most important players to deliver global energy transition policies.
At its Capital Markets Day in November 2022, the Iberdrola group presented its strategic plan and announced record investments of €47 billion between 2023 and 2025.
The company intends to allocate around €17 billion to the renewables business, focusing growth on assured, high-quality projects with the best risk/return ratio. Of this amount, 46% will be focused on offshore wind in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. As for the remaining technologies, onshore wind will account for 25% of the investment, photovoltaic for 24%, hydroelectric for 2% and batteries for 3%.
As a result of these investments, the company will increase its installed renewable capacity by 12,100 MW to 52,000 MW in 2025 – 3,100 MW onshore wind, 6,300 MW photovoltaic, 1,800 MW offshore, 700 MW of batteries and 200 MW of hydro – compared to the 40,000 MW planned for this year. The group has already secured 50% of the new capacity and around 95% of production will be contracted by 2025.
About Haizea Wind Group
Haizea Wind Group was formed in 2017, building on two existing companies (WEC Group and Tecnoaranda). In 2018 Haizea launched Haizea Sica, its wind tower factory in Santa Fe (Argentina). Also in 2018, production was launched in the offshore tower factory in the Port of Bilbao, Haizea Bilbao, by a group of professionals with extensive experience and with the aim of becoming the benchmark in offshore wind manufacturing in the European market. More recently, in 2022, Haizea Wind Group opened the Haizea Breizh plant in France, also dedicated to offshore wind towers.
Haizea Wind Group currently has three business units: wind towers, offshore foundations and large wind power castings.
This is the second contract Haizea Bilbao has secured for the future Port facilities after the one signed last September with the Danish company Ørsted.
The Group currently employs around 1,200 people and had turnover in 2022 in excess of €250 million.
Monopiles are large steel structures used to fix wind turbines to the seabed, and are the most competitive type of foundation, being present in approximately 80% of the offshore wind farms in operation.
Currently, for 10-12 MW offshore wind turbines, monopiles have a diameter of 8-9 metres, a length of 80-90 metres and a weight of around 1,500 tonnes. Haizea Bilbao is one of the few European manufacturers capable of producing parts with these dimensions. In the future, with wind turbines of up to 20 MW, it is estimated that the monopiles will be up to 14-15 metres in diameter, up to 130 metres long and weigh up to 3,500 tonnes. With scheduled investments, the new plant in Bilbao will be able to manufacture parts of this size in serial production and will become the benchmark factory in Europe.
Haizea Wind Group is currently the leading manufacturer of large offshore wind towers in Europe having executed important projects such as East Anglia One and Dogger Bank (UK), Borselle 1&2 and HKZ (Holland), Hornsea Two (UK), Seamade (Belgium), Formosa (Taiwan), St. Nazaire and St. Brieuc (France) or Hywind Tampen (Norway) among others.
