Ignacio Galán: "We want to continue to be a driving force for growth and prosperity in the Basque Country and Spain"

Iberdrola and Haizea Wind Group, a world leader in the manufacture of wind towers, have today signed an agreement worth more than 200 million euros for Haizea Bilbao to supply 50 monopiles to the East Anglia Three offshore wind farm in the United Kingdom, developed by the British subsidiary of the electricity company, Scottish Power, from its facilities in the Port of Biscay.  

The Chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, said during the ceremony that "we want to continue to be a driving force for growth and prosperity in the Basque Country and Spain". Together with him, the Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu, the chairman of Haizea Wind Group, Dámaso Quintana, and other authorities laid the first stone of the future facilities, which will require an investment of more than 150 million euros. 

Urkullu, for his part, praised Iberdrola's support for the economy and society of the Basque Country. "This union makes us stronger. It is important to have agreements with other entities to be able to move forward", he said. 

At present, the Group's 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 now has a surface area of more than 200,000 m2.  

The expansion has required the extension of the existing concession granted by the Port Authority. In addition to the three existing warehouses, Haizea Bilbao will add 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 mean the creation of some 350 direct jobs at Haizea Bilbao.  

With this contract, Haizea Wind Group completes a workload in Bilbao that exceeds 1,500 million euros for the next 4 years and represents an important recognition of its technological and productive capabilities. The 50 monopiles that Haizea Wind Group will manufacture 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 stated in the contract signed with Iberdrola, Haizea Bilbao will be responsible for the supply of materials, engineering of the manufacturing process and manufacture of the monopiles. 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, which includes the objective of becoming one of the most important players in the offshore wind energy value chain and, more specifically, securing a relevant position within the offshore foundation supply and manufacturing companies. 

The achievement of this agreement with the world leader in the offshore wind market confirms the soundness of the plan developed by Haizea Bilbao in recent years to position itself as one of the leading manufacturers of structures (towers and foundations) in offshore wind, and consolidates the group's commitment to becoming one of the world's leading suppliers to the wind industry. The Port of Bilbao will also see its position as one of the most important offshore wind hubs in Southern Europe strengthened with the investment. 

The Haizea Bilbao extension works will be carried out by the Basque company Amenabar. 

With a market capitalisation of close to 70,000 million euros, Iberdrola is the largest electricity company in Europe and one of the two largest in the world, serving 100 million people worldwide. Iberdrola is also the world leader in the offshore wind power market. 

The Basque company is developing a record investment plan totalling 47 billion euros between 2023 and 2025. 

Iberdrola will allocate 17 billion euros to the renewable business, focusing growth on high quality projects with the best risk/return ratio. Of this amount, 46% will be focused on offshore wind technology in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the rest of the technologies, onshore wind will account for 25% of the investment, photovoltaic 24%, hydro 2% and batteries 3%. 

As a result of these investments, the company will increase its installed renewable capacity by 12,100 MW, reaching 52,000 MW in 2025 compared to the 40,000 MW planned for this year.  

In addition, Iberdrola will invest 27 billion in transmission and distribution grids, increasing its asset base by 44% to 56 billion in 2025.  

Haizea Wind Group is a Group that 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 the turnover in 2022 will exceed 250 million euros.  

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 10-12MW offshore wind turbines, monopiles have a diameter of 8-9 metres, a length of 80-90 metres and a weight of around 1500 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 20MW, it is estimated that the monopiles will be up to 14-15 metres in diameter, up to 130 metres long and weigh up to 3500 tonnes. With the planned investments, the new plant in Bilbao will be sized to manufacture parts of this size in serial production, and will become the reference 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.