Iberdrola Green energy division set to bring another 200 jobs to Glasgow

 

© The Herald Originally published: 3/3/2010

The green energy arm of the Spanish electricity giant Iberdrola, the company that owns ScottishPower, yesterday said that it had created a new offshore wind division to be headquartered in Glasgow and that it plans to recruit more than 200 jobs within the next six years.

The news comes on the heels of an announcement last week by Iberdrola that the company plans to create 100 new high-end engineering jobs when Iberdrola Engineering and Construction shifts to Scotland from Spain later this year.

Meanwhile, green-energy focused Iberdrola Renovables said its new offshore wind division will develop a “major portfolio of offshore wind projects awarded to the company that totals close to 10,000 MW around the world”.

The latest move is part of the company’s plan to consolidate itself as the world’s leading producer of electricity from clean technologies, such as wind energy.

The company said the new division will be headed by Keith Anderson, and will be incorporated into ScottishPower Renewables, the UK business unit of Iberdrola Renovables that in 2008 and 2009 built more than 140 turbines at Whitelee Windfarm, near Glasgow.

Anderson also heads ScottishPower Renewables.

A spokesman for the company yesterday told The Herald: “There are already about 20 people working for the division in Scotland now, but the number will be scaled up as projects mature over the next five or six years.

“These will be high-end engineering jobs.”

Between 2010 and 2012, Iberdrola said it expects to invest €9bn in renewables generation to accelerate its international expansion and consolidate its position as world leader in wind energy.

The company said it will invest €4.9bn in the US, €1.9bn in the UK, €1bn in Spain and €1.2bn in the rest of the world.

Iberdrola was recently awarded the rights together with Vattenfall to develop one of the world’s largest offshore wind farms in the UK. The East Anglia Array, in the North Sea off the coast of Norfolk, will have a capacity of up to 7200 MW and is projected to begin construction in 2015.