Iberdrola España to provide Diamond Foundry with 100% renewable energy for diamond manufacturing
- The energy company and the diamond manufacturing company signed a contract to supply the power necessary for the diamond manufacturing process in Trujillo.
Iberdrola España and Diamond Foundry have signed a contract under which the energy company will be responsible for supplying the company with power for the synthetic diamond manufacturing process at the plant commissioned in Trujillo, Cáceres.
The contract states that the supply will be 100% renewable and with a Guarantee of Origin certificate issued by the Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). It also has a traceability process up to the installation certified by AENOR, resulting in a business model that respects the environment and allows it to contribute to decarbonisation.
The agreement will allow Iberdrola España to supply Diamond Foundry with an estimated annual energy of 30 GWh at a voltage of 45 kV, which will be increased to 132 kV according to the power needs of the factory’s different start-up phases.
The Diamond Foundry project has an overall investment of €675 M and foresees the production of diamonds for jewellery, industrial applications and, in a second phase, supercomputing and data. Commissioning has already started in the test phase.
Diamond Foundry España said that ‘being able to use 100% renewable energy was a prerequisite for Diamond Foundry's industrial project in Trujillo, in line with the basic principles of our business philosophy’. Diamond Foundry is certified as the world's first diamond producer with a real zero carbon footprint.
Borja Cañas, from Iberdrola España's sales office in Andalusia and Extremadura, stressed the importance of electricity generation and marketing it locally to develop industrial projects, as in the case of the Trujillo diamond factory, in an autonomous community that is a major energy producer, which is a factor attracting a variety of initiatives.
Extremadura has become one of Iberdrola España's fastest growing regions in Spain with nearly 5,700 MW installed by the end of 2023, some 4,590 of them renewable, both in Cáceres and Badajoz, 655 MW more than at the end of 2022. Hydroelectric installations total 2,043 MW and photovoltaic installations, 2,544 MW.
Iberdrola España's electricity distributor, i-DE, has emphasised that thanks to the investments made in grids, Extremadura has the capacity to cover service for companies that request it and the power demand required. This was explained by David Martín, Iberdrola España's institutional representative in the region and head of distribution.
In Extremadura, i-DE manages more than 10,600 km of low and medium voltage lines and more than 2,000 km of high and very high voltage lines. It also has 3,467 transformation centres in service and 65 substations to provide the best service to both individuals and companies.
These figures are the result of i-DE’s investments in new electricity infrastructure and in the maintenance and renewal of existing ones, as well as its ambitious digitalisation plan.