Spanish-owned Iberdrola, Europe’s third biggest power company as ranked by company value, has commissioned the 496 MW park off Saint-Brieuc, facing Jersey.

The first of the farm’s 62 marine turbines were erected in 2021. Saint-Brieuc will produce 1,820GWh each year, around 9% of all electricity consumed across the entire province.

Only the 714MW East Anglia One park in the North Sea is more powerful of Iberdrola’s three other farm already generating in European waters. The company’s 1.4 GW East Anglia Three project is under construction, as is its 476MW Baltic Eagle venture off Germany.

Iberdrola is also building the USA’s first big marine turbine cluster, the 806 MW Vineyard Wind farm off Massachusetts.

Saint-Brieuc will outperform Ibedrola’s 389MW Duddon Sands park in the Irish Sea and the 350MW Wikinger farm in the Baltic.

Its 62 turbines, each rated at 8MW, is now feeding into the French grid, managed by RTE. The nuclear power of state-controlled EdF continues to dominate France’s electricity market, accounting for up to 78%.

Iberdrola provided all the €2.4 billion which Saint-Brieuc cost to build. Its development began in April 2012.

Construction of the wind farm has mobilised more than 1700 jobs in France, nearly a third of them in Brittany. Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy built Saint-Brieuc’s turbines at its new industrial site in Le Havre.

Navantia Windar assembled the jacket foundations. Electrical contractors Haizea Breizh, also on the Brest polder, assembled the masts’ electrical equipment.

“We are particularly proud to announce the full commissioning of Saint-Brieuc, twelve years after we were named the bid’s winner, “said Emmanuel Rollin, Iberdrola’s director for France.

“The challenge for us, as a European leader in renewables, was to create the foundations of a sustainable industrial sector for French offshore wind power. We have worked hard to involve local companies in this project by supporting them in this fast-growing segment ,” said his colleague Stéphane-Alain Riou, director of offshore wind energy

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Eickholt will step down on 31 July and leave the company on 30 September, the parent company Siemens Energy announced this morning. He was appointed the turbine maker’s head only in April 2022, with a brief to reverse cost over-runs and to repair fractured supply chains.

Replacing the 62 year old will be Vinod Philip, 50, head of global functions at Siemens Energy. Philip currently oversees a palette of functions including IT, purchasing, innovation, logistics and project management.

Today’s announcement by the parent makes no mention of Tim Dawidowsky, appointed as Siemens-Gamesa’s chief operating officer in 2022, within two months of Eickholt’s arrival.

Under the pair’s tenure, Siemens Gamesa has continued to struggle with quality issues and sustained financial losses.  Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch today absolved Eickholt from blame for the former, declaring that “the causes of the quality problems did not fall under his tenure”.

Bruch said that Eickholt’s departure was part of the company’s multi-year restructuring plan as “the time has now come for a generational change at Siemens Gamesa”.

Continuing losses at the turbines division dictates the sharpening of strategy identified in today’s overhaul. While continuing to make larger maritime structures, it will now target developers and generators operating onshore farms in stable regulatory environments, chiefly in Europe and the US. Break-even by 2026 is the financial goal, to be followed by profit margins topping 10% at an unspecified date.

Although its plan meentions unspecified job cuts, the parent Siemens Energy reaffirmed its commitment to both maritime and onshore turbines, allaying concerns of potential divestment or closure of wind business segments.

The parent confirmed that coastal factories making maritime – and thus bigger – turbines in Cuxhaven, Aalborg and Le Havre will continue to ramp up their capacities, a move the parent sees as essential.

Continuing disruptions to production and resulting flaws led to financial setbacks for Siemens Gamesa in 2023, including a loss of €4.6bn (£3.94bn). At the time, Bruch said: “The strong performance of our other business areas gives me confidence in our company’s ability to put businesses back on a strong footing.”

Siemens Energy’s shares surged 13% on today’s announcement.  At group level, it declared expectations of better profit margins, and adjusting its 2024 projections for sales to rise as much 12% during the year.

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