Iberdrola confirms commitment to wind energy in United States by installing three new Wind Farms

IBERDROLA, world leader in wind power, has commissioned three new wind farms in the United States, where it is already the second operator in the Renewables sector in terms of installed capacity, with over 5,700 megawatts (MW).

To be more specific, these new wind power facilities are: Manzana (California), Groton (New Hampshire) and Hoosac (Massachusetts) and their combined capacity is over 265 MW.

The Manzana wind power complex is one of the company's largest wind farm facilities in the world, with an installed capacity of 189 MW. It is located in a very windy area of Kern County, close to the towns of Rosamond and Tehachapi. It is equipped with 126 wind turbines manufactured by the U.S. multinational General Electric, each with a unit capacity of 1.5 MW.

The Groton wind farm is located in the town of Groton in Grafton County. It is equipped with 24 wind turbines manufactured by Gamesa (G87 model, hub height 78 m and capacity 48 MW).

Finally, the Hoosac wind farm is located in the municipalities of Florida and Monroe, which belong to Berkshire County. This facility is equipped with 19 General Electric wind turbines (1.5 model, hub height 65 m), which provide a total installed capacity of 28.5 MW.

These three new complexes are proof of IBERDROLA's loyalty to the United States, where it has been concentrating its expansion in the last five years. The U.S. is firmly committed to wind power, which is undoubtedly the most efficient and most mature of all the renewable energy sources.

United States, a strategic country

IBERDROLA has been operating in the United States since the year 2006, when as part of its international expansion in the renewable energies sector, the company took over various U.S. wind power developers: Community Energy Inc (in May)and MREC Partners and its holding Midwest Renewable Energy Projects (in October).

It was in the year 2007 that the Group took a major leap forwards. On the one hand, in the month of April, it took over the Scottish firm ScottishPower, meaning that it also took control over one of the main wind power companies in the U.S.: PPM. On the other hand, it announced the purchase of Energy East, an operation that was completed in September 2008 and marked IBERDROLA's entry in the energy transport and distribution business in the U.S.

Nowadays, IBERDROLA is a key energy operator in the United States, where it is now the second wind power company in terms of installed capacity, at over 5,700 megawatts. Moreover, via Iberdrola USA (formerly Energy East), which groups together the subsidiaries Central Maine Power (CMP), Rochester Gas & Electricity (RG&E) and the New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG), it supplies electricity to 1.9 million customers and gas to a further 600,000 in the states of Maine, New York and New Hampshire.

In the 2012-2014 period, the IBERDROLA Group plans to allocated 16% of its total investments in this country, i.e. €1,700 million, mostly to network and renewable energy projects.