Iberdrola’s offshore wind leader to leave company

Iberdrola’s offshore head Jonathan Cole will leave the company next year.

He will be replaced by Alvaro Martinez Palacio, who has held senior positions in Iberdrola’s offshore business for 14 years and has been in charge of all of its offshore wind projects for the last three years.

Meanwhile, Cole has been Iberdrola’s managing director of offshore wind since December 2007 and also sits on the boards of several industry groups, including the Global Offshore Wind Health and Safety Organisation.

The two will be working together during a transition period.

Iberdrola has not confirmed Cole’s leaving date, but confirmed that it would be in 2022.

During Cole’s time at Iberdrola, the Spanish energy giant has grown its offshore wind portfolio, and now has stakes in more than 1.4GW of operational capacity off the UK and Germany, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly.

It has stakes in a 15GW pipeline planned off Taiwan, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, Ireland, the UK and Norway.

Earlier this year, Iberdrola announced plans to triple its operational renewables capacity by the end of the decade, with wind power set to account for much of the growth. It aims to spend €150 billion building a 95GW renewables portfolio by 2030, including 22GW of offshore wind and 16.2GW of onshore wind.

Iberdrola said Cole would be leaving the company amicably, and added: “Alvaro’s experience in successfully delivering large-scale projects across the world will help to continue driving forward our ambitions to be the global leader in offshore wind power in the years ahead.”