wiredInUSA May 2020

Spanish utility plans 2020 investments

Early start for planning procedure

Iberdrola’s CEO, Ignacio Galán The Spanish utilities company Iberdrola will invest €10 billion in Spain’s economy with the delivery of several solar projects during 2020. During the company’s online AGM, Iberdrola’s CEO, Ignacio Galán, said the company will invest the money across the entire business, to boost economic confidence and prevent job losses in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, saying: “We share with you the certainty that speeding up investments, once these exceptional circumstances come to an end, is the best – I would venture to say the only – way to get through this situation of crisis and uncertainty.” However, with Spain in lockdown, Iberdrola has been forced to call a temporary halt to construction work on its solar and wind projects. The company has PV projects of 590MWp and 328MW under construction in Spain’s Extremadura region, as well as a 149MW project in Portugal that is yet to break ground. The company currently has a 9GW backlog of renewable projects but confirmed that, regardless of the Covid-19 outbreak, it expects to commission at least half of these projects before the end of 2020.

Germany’s Amprion has secured a waiver from the relevant authorities to allow the transmission system operator to bypass the regional planning procedure for the sections of DolWin4 and BorWin4 offshore grid connection systems between the North Sea coast (Hagermarsch) and the Emden area. Thecompany can now start preparing for the public planning procedure, and expects to submit the necessary documents and start the procedure in 2022. The 900MW DolWin4 and the 900MW BorWin4 systems are planned to be commissioned in 2028 and 2029, respectively. The two offshore systems will be connected to the Amprion grid in Lingen, in Lower Saxony. The cables will cross the island of Norderney and reach themainland in the coastal town Hagermarsch. On the mainland, Amprion has to install between 150km and 170km of land cable between the coast and the grid connection point in Lingen. DolWin4 and BorWin4 will be installed in parallel at the onshore sections. The administrative districts of Aurich and Emden, the relevant authorities for the 43km section between the North Sea coast and Emden, waived the planning procedure on the grounds, explained Amprion, that the established Regional Plan already contains suitable corridors for offshore cables.

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wiredInUSA - May 2020