Iberdrola signs new deal with Amazon, which acquires 159 MW of renewable energy from East Anglia Three
Iberdrola and Amazon have expanded their global partnership to drive decarbonisation by signing a 159 MW long-term renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) from East Anglia, the world's second largest wind farm.
This contract joins others already signed by Amazon for projects in Germany, the United States and the UK itself. During the life of the PPAs, the technology giant has contracted 54,000 GWh of renewable energy from Iberdrola.
East Anglia Three will create more than 2,300 jobs during construction and support 100 long-term jobs over the life of the wind farm. The project is the second largest wind farm in the world, will have 1.4 gigawatts (GW) installed thanks to 95 Siemens Gamesa turbines and, when fully operational in 2026, will generate enough clean electricity to power 1.3 million British homes. It will be located 69 kilometres off the Suffolk coast.
The new agreement has been announced at Haizea Wind Group's facilities in Bilbao, where 50 monopiles are being manufactured. From there, they will be shipped to the UK and used to support the wind turbines of the East Anglia Three wind farm.
This Iberdrola wind farm supports Amazon's commitment to source 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the technology company's original target. With more than 500 solar and wind energy projects, the US company is also the world's largest purchaser of renewable energy since 2020.
Iberdrola and Amazon have not only extended their partnership for decarbonisation, but have also launched their global Journey to Cloud programme. This will see more of Iberdrola's operations migrate to the cloud and the utility take advantage of Amazon Web Services' (AWS) high-performance computing services.
Iberdrola, for example, will be able to use the cloud to halve the time it takes to run a complex weather simulation and take advantage of Amazon Sagemaker's AI and machine learning services. This will maximise the efficiency of renewable energy assets around the world.
Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence
ScottishPower, Iberdrola's UK subsidiary, has created an Internet of Things (IoT) platform to collect data and improve knowledge of its low-voltage network in the UK.
The two companies are also designing projects to incorporate generative Artificial Intelligence through Amazon Bedrock to improve customer experience and support the service provided by their employees.
Ignacio Galán, Chairman of Iberdrola, said: "It brings together two world leaders in key sectors for the future: clean energy and data and artificial intelligence. Agreements like this one, which joins those already signed by Iberdrola and Amazon on both sides of the Atlantic, demonstrate that electrification is the best path to energy autonomy, local job creation and environmental improvement. And digitalisation will undoubtedly be one of the main drivers of demand growth in the coming years.
Iberdrola has previously signed PPAs with Amazon in Germany (Baltic Eagle and Windanker), which will provide Amazon with 319 megawatts (MW) of clean energy (1.3 terawatt-hours each year), equivalent to the annual electricity needs of more than 314,000 European homes. In the US, Amazon has signed agreements including the 150 MW (550 GWh/a) Amazon Wind Farm Osagrove Flats wind farm and the 90 MW (240 GWh/a) Leaning Juniper IIA repowered wind farm.
The Osagrove Flats wind farm will have a capacity of 150 MW and will be located in LaSalle County (Illinois). Consisting of 45 turbines, it will be capable of powering 24,400 homes per year and will support the creation of some 300 jobs during construction.
The repowered Leaning Juniper IIA will have a capacity of 98.4 MW and will be located in Gilliam County, Oregon. With 40 turbines, it will be capable of powering 22,800 homes per year and will support 200 jobs during construction.
Leading the PPA market
Iberdrola has extensive experience in PPAs and manages long-term power purchase agreements in markets such as Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico and Australia, from onshore and offshore wind projects, as well as photovoltaic projects. More than a decade ago, the group began to develop this type of agreement and today Iberdrola is the leader in the PPA ranking in Europe, according to the consultancy firm Pexapark.