Iberdrola awards Asturias-based Hiasa a €45 million contract for its upcoming photovoltaic projects in Spain
- This order for fixed structures and trackers will give continuity to the workload of the Hiasa factory in Avilés
- The company will use these elements in 9 new renewable installations with a combined capacity of almost 600 MW
Iberdrola continues to promote the development in Spain of a competitive supply chain related to energy transition projects. The company has awarded Hiasa Gonvarri a €45 million contract for the manufacture and installation of fixed structures and trackers at its upcoming photovoltaic plants in the country.
These elements will be used in nine renewable facilities that the company plans to build, which together have a total installed capacity of almost 600 megawatts (MW). These include the Ciudad Rodrigo, Ballestas and Casetona plants in Castilla y León, and Maja Alto and Tallisca in Andalusia.
This order will give continuity to the workload of the Hiasa factory in Avilés. In total, Iberdrola has already awarded the Asturian company contracts worth around €94 million for a series of projects with a capacity of almost 2,000 MW. These include orders for the photovoltaic plants at Nuñez de Balboa and Peñarrubia (Badajoz); Campo de Arañuelo I, II and III, Cedillo and Tagus I-IV (Cáceres); Andévalo (Huelva); Romeral (Cuenca), Puertollano (Ciudad Real), Ciudad Rodrigo and Villarino (Salamanca); Revilla-Vallejera (Brugos); and Teruel.
The latest award includes the supply of trackers for two of the projects, devices that allow the solar panels to be oriented so that they remain perpendicular to the sun's rays. These components are custom-made for each installation, which requires in-depth knowledge of the technology.
164 million euros in purchases from a hundred suppliers
Iberdrola relies on Asturian suppliers for numerous jobs related to green projects and decarbonisation, such as grid management, environmental protection and monitoring, substation construction, generator repair and maintenance of hydroelectric plants, among others.
During the last financial year alone, Iberdrola made purchases and contracted services from more than one hundred Asturian suppliers amounting to €164 million. Its main suppliers include Windar, which is making the 50 transition parts for the Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm that the company is building in the Baltic Sea (Germany) at its facilities in Avilés. Around 30 local companies are also involved in the process, including steel production companies, components, equipment, testing and auxiliary machinery.
Windar will also be responsible for supplying these elements for the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind farm that Iberdrola is developing in the United States. In addition, the Asturian company has manufactured the piles for the Saint-Brieuc wind farm - the Iberdrola group's first large offshore wind farm in France - as part of the contract awarded to the Navantia-Windar consortium. In total, Iberdrola has so far awarded contracts worth more than €1 billion to this consortium.
Within the framework of Iberdrola's commitment to the development of Asturias, the group has invested €350 million in the region in the last five years and expects to increase this figure to €500 million in the next five years.
As part of its commitment to consolidating an energy model for the future in Asturias, the company has commissioned four wind farms (Cordel-Vidural, Capiechemartín, Verdiguerio and Panondres), with a total capacity of 130 MW, which have tripled the renewable capacity installed to date in the region. These initiatives - in the construction of which more than ten Asturian companies have participated - have generated up to 1,000 jobs.
The Iberdrola group leads the renewable energy sector in Spain with an installed capacity of more than 19,300 MW, which will reach 25,000 MW in the coming years thanks to its investment plan. The company plans to allocate €14.3 billion by 2025 to the deployment of an ambitious renewables and smart grids plan.