UAE renewables group Masdar is set to take a major stake in Iberdrola’s Baltic Eagle offshore wind project in German waters, it was claimed today (Wednesday).
Masdar will buy a share of up to 49% in Baltic Eagle, a 476MW project valued at about $1.5bn, said Spanish financial newspaper Expansion citing unnamed sources.
Abu Dhabi-based Masdar has set its stall out as one of the world’s most ambitious renewables players with a target to amass a 100GW gross portfolio by 2030, up from around 20GW now.
Masdar was an investor in the London Array in the early days of European offshore wind expansion and is also Equinor’s partner in the pioneering Hywind Scotland floating project.
Masdar – which as the green energy face of the UAE and backed by its sovereign wealth fund will find itself increasingly in the spotlight in the run-up to the Dubai-hosted COP28 climate summit – told Recharge: “As a matter of policy Masdar is unable to comment on market speculation.”
If confirmed, Masdar would become the latest partner for Iberdrola as the Spanish group pursues its massive global green power expansion plans. It has this year already advanced plans with Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, on gigascale Spanish solar development.
Iberdrola also declined to comment when approached by Recharge.
Baltic Eagle is the next element of Iberdorla’s €3.5bn gigawatt-scale Baltic Hub ambitions.
Due for commissioning in 2024 using 50 Vestas turbines, Baltic Eagle will join the already operating 300MW Wikinger and the planned 300MW Windanker to create the Baltic Hub, where Iberdrola hopes to have 1.1GW operating by 2026.,
Iberdrola earlier this year sealed a deal with Amazon that will see the web retail behemoth take 1.1TWh annually from the Windanker and Baltic Eagle projects.
Amazon is the world’s largest procurer of renewable power, much of it to support the energy-hungry data centre operations of its Amazon Web Services unit.
