Iberdrola to pour billions into U.S. renewables

Bilbao, Spain-based energy utility Iberdrola is going big with its plans for the U.S. renewable energy market, announcing that it would invest $8 billion in the the U.S. between 2008 and 2010.

Most of that is likely to be in wind, as the company said it aims to grab a 15 percent share of the wind power market in the States by 2010.

The company is already the world's biggest wind farm developer, and owns farms in New York, California and Oregon with an aggregate installed capacity of 2,400 megawatts.

Iberdrola also has a number of projects underway in the U.S. and said it expects to reach an installed capacity of 3,600 MW by the end of this year.

The announcement comes amid a flurry of wind activity in the U.S., including a big order from Dallas-based Mesa Power.

Formed by Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens, Mesa made a deal to order 667 wind turbines from Fairfield, Conn.'s General Electric (NYSE: GE) as part of the $2 billion first phase of a massive wind farm to be built in Texas (see Mesa Power makes big order for GE turbines).

Mesa said the turbines would be capable of generating 1,000 MW.

The company's four-phase Pampa Wind Project is set to be the world's largest wind farm, producing more than 4,000 MW of electricity when complete.

The U.S. Department of Energy also just released a report that said wind power could provide up to 20 percent of the nation's total electricity needs by 2030 (see Wind power push could depend on incentives).

While Iberdrola's investment could help push development in that direction, the DOE said annual wind installations would need to increase more than threefold to reach that 2030 milestone.