Iberdrola and Haizea Wind Group signed More than 200 million contracts for Haizea Bilbao to supply 50 single masts to East Anglia Three offshore wind farms in the UKIt was developed by Scottish Power, the UK subsidiary of the public service.
The agreement will mean: 350 direct jobs a year the single masts will be manufactured at the new Haizea facilities in Bilbao Port, whose first stone was laid this Wednesday.
The contract was signed this Wednesday at the wind tower builder’s facilities in the port by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, president of Iberdrola, and Damaso Quintana, president of Haizea Wind Group.
Lehendakari, Iñigo Urkullu, as well as Bizkaia deputy general manager Unai Rementeria, Minister of Economic Development Arantxa Tapia and Zierbena mayor Iñigo de Loyola, during this action, the first stone was laid for the Haizea Wind facilities, which will require an investment of over 150 million euros in The Port .
Currently, the group’s factory in the Port of Bilbao, Haizea Bilbao, It has 48,800 square meters and 500 employees.. After this last contract with Iberdrola, Haizea Bilbao already has an area of ​​more than 200,000 m2.
The expansion required the Port Authority’s existing concession and extension to three existing vessels, Haizea Bilbao. will add three moreand a new additional storage area to accommodate single stacks before they are delivered to shipping ships.
Haizea Bilbao expansion works that have just started and will take place in More than 150 million Euro investmentIt will be run by the Basque company Amenabar.
With this contract, which will allow the creation of 350 direct jobs in Haizea Bilbao, Haizea Wind Group completes a workload of more than 1,500 million euros in Bilbao for the next four years and constitutes, as stressed, a “significant acceptance”. capabilities technological and productive”.
The 50 monopiles Haizea Wind Group will manufacture for Iberdrola will serve to support the wind turbines of the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the UK and will emerge from the new facilities. Total, The park will have a capacity of 1.4 GW and provide clean energy to more than a million British homes.
Single masts are large steel structures used to anchor wind turbines to the seafloor and, as they emphasize, are the most competitive type of foundation available in approximately 80% of offshore wind farms in operation.
Currently, single masts for 10-12MW offshore wind turbines are 8-9 meters in diameter, 80-90 meters long and weigh approximately 1,500 tons. Haizea Bilbao is one of the few European manufacturers capable of producing parts of this size.
In the future, wind turbines up to 20 MW and single masts will be Their diameter reaches up to 14-15 meters.Length up to 130 meters and weight up to 3,500 tons. With the planned investments, the new factory in Bilbao will be brought to dimensions that will produce parts of this size in mass production and will “become a reference factory in Europe.”
Under the contract, Haizea Bilbao will be responsible for the procurement of materials, engineering of the production process and the production of the single masts.
This contract and the expansion of Haizea’s capacity at the Port of Bilbao are in line with Haizea Wind Group’s strategic growth plan, which, as highlighted, aims to “become one of the key players in the offshore wind energy chain”. , more specifically, to secure a relevant position in offshore base generation and supply companies”.
He also added that the achievement of this agreement confirms the “solidity” of the plan developed by Haizea Bilbao in recent years to position itself as one of the main manufacturers of structures (towers and foundations) in the offshore wind field, and reinforces the group’s commitment. for being “one of the world’s leading suppliers to the wind industry”.
on his behalfBilbao Port will also strengthen its position as one of the most important Offshore Wind Farms in Southern Europe with investment.
Currently, Iberdrola is developing a record investment plan totaling 47,000 million euros between 2023 and 2025. The company will allocate 17,000 million euros to its renewable business, focusing on growth “with high quality projects and the best risk/return relationship”. . 46% of this amount will focus on offshore wind technology in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the remaining technologies, onshore wind will monopolize 25% of investment, photovoltaics 24%, hydraulics 2% and batteries 3%.
As a result of these investments, the company will increase its renewable installed power by 12,100 MW, reaching 52,000 MW in 2025, compared to the 40,000 MW estimate this year.
Haizea Wind Group, a group established in 2017 and the main manufacturer of large offshore wind towers in Europe, has three business units to its name: wind towers, offshore foundations and large castings for wind power.
The contract was signed this Wednesday This is the second Haizea Bilbao has secured for the future facilities of the Port. after closing with Danish Orsted last September.
Prince
During the event, Iberdrola President Ignacio Sánchez Galán said: it’s a “celebration day” and is “another example of industrial and technological development and opportunities for job creation and internationalization. provides energy transfer.
Sánchez Galán is part of the signed agreement and this new Haizea Wind factory. “An absolute example of success and an element of celebration”.
It has announced that single masts will be produced for the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the UK, making it an “impressive hub” where they will invest more than £10,000 million. As he stated, the first park was put into operation with an investment of 3,000 million, and others will follow. The head of Iberdrola assured that such projects can only be realized by “combining efforts”.
Haizea Wind
Dámaso Quintana, chairman of Haizea Wind Group, stressed that the company is facing a “big challenge”, such as the commissioning of new facilities in the Port with an investment of more than 150 million. with the “will to be the leader of a product like the monopolists”It is a product they will produce for Iberdrola after the signed contract.
Likewise, while expressing his gratitude to the institutions and also to Iberdrola, he underlined that many Biscayan companies have become “reference points in their fields of activity” thanks to the electricity company. “Hopefully in a few years we can say that Haizea has become a world touchstone.”
He also applied directly to Ignacio Sánchez Galán for this “opportunity”. “We will not let you down, you will always be a loyal supplier and spare no effort to help Iberdrola achieve its goals”, manifested.
Source: Informacion
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