Gamesa sells 250 MW in Portugal

Gamesa is selling 250 MW of wind projects it has under development in Portugal to Spanish utility Iberdrola for EUR 310 million, if and when they come online. The completion date for projects included in the deal is December 2007. Aside from the 18 MW Catefica plant under construction, the projects are all in varying phases of development. Gamesa says its Portugal wind development portfolio is now 1175 MW, of which 450 MW are ready to build. The deal also binds Gamesa and Iberdrola to jointly develop 1500 MW of further projects, initiated mainly by Gamesa. In October, Iberdrola claimed a pipeline of 248 MW, through its 78% control of Portuguese wind development consortium Aeolia. Gamesa's latest deal with Iberdrola comes on top of an agreement in 2003 to sell 250 MW of its Portuguese projects to Belgian utility Electrabel as they were commissioned. Also last month, Gamesa handed over the last 219 MW to Iberdrola from an agreement in 2002 to sell 1000 MW of its operating wind capacity in Spain to the utility. This last batch involves five plants across the regions of Galicia and Aragón. Meantime, Gamesa is assessing bids for a further auction of 700 MW of wind power, the details of which have not been made public.