Power production

Global renewables group, Iberdrola Renovables, has increased its power production by 20 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, to 5,398 million kWh.

At the end of March, the group had an installed capacity of 9,624MW, a 27.3 per cent increase on the previous year. According to the company, this positions it as a world leader in the wind-power industry.

Wind power accounted for 96.8 per cent of this figure, increasing to 5,226 million kWh in the first three months of 2009. The company’s mini-hydro powerstations generated 172 million kWh of power in the first quarter, representing 3.2 per cent of total power produced during the period.

The strongest growth was achieved in the US with 155MW in the first quarter, reaching a total of 3,031MW. In the UK, the installed capacity was increased by 39 MW to 704MW following the development of Europe’s largest wind farm at Whitelee in Scotland. Spanish wind-power capacity was at 4,959MW, with production spread out over 13 different regions.