Iberdrola will add another 600 MW of renewable energy in the United States before the end of the year
Iberdrola, through its American subsidiary AVANGRID Renewables, is currently building four wind farms and a photovoltaic plant in the USA, which will add almost 600 megawatts (MW) of capacity expected to be commissioned before the end of the year.
The wind farms are Tule, with a capacity of 131.10 MW, in Deerfield, California, with 30 MW (Vermont); Twin Buttes II (Colorado), with 75 MW, and El Cabo (New Mexico), with 298.2 MW. Also, construction of a 56 MW photovoltaic plant in Prineville, Oregon, to be called Gala, is in the initial stages. With the new capacity under development, Iberdrola intends to consolidate its position in the USA, where it is the third largest wind power company.
It is already making unprecedented investments in the Spanish renewable energy industry. For most of these facilities, Iberdrola has signed contracts with local North American companies to supply power in the long term, which is one of the secrets of its success in the United States. These contracts, which are known in the United States as Power Purchase Agreements (PPA), guarantee the profitability of energy facilities in the country over a long period of time.
Under these contracts, Iberdrola is the owner and operator of the wind farm that it has built and the electricity generated is distributed to the company it has the agreement with. These agreements have been signed for most of Iberdrola’s wind farms in the US. They have provided great stability to the company’s investments in this strategic market, which is one of the most important reasons for its commitment to the US.
In recent months, Iberdrola has signed agreements with some emblematic North American multinationals, which have entrusted the company with supplying green energy to their facilities from its wind farms. Iberdrola has been operating in the United States since the end of 2015, through the AVANGRID company, fruit of the friendly integration between Iberdrola USA and UIL Holdings Corporation.
AVANGRID is listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the ticker AGR. Its headquarters are in New Haven (Connecticut), and its operations span 25 US States, with assets worth US$31 billion. AVANGRID’s presence in the renewables sector in the United States is one of the largest international commitments ever undertaken by a Spanish company to date. Its involvement in clean generation in the country has led it to be the third largest wind operator in the country, with about 6,200 MW in installed wind power.
In recent years, AVANGRID has built some of the most emblematic facilities in the sector in the United States. For example, the Peñascal complex is its largest wind power facility in the world with a capacity of 606 MW.
