Iberdrola plans one billion euro investment in Baltic Sea wind farms

LONDON (Reuters) - *Iberdrola Renewables Offshore will invest 1 billion euros (878.5 billion pounds) in developing two offshore wind farm projects in the Baltic Sea after winning 486 megawatts (MW) of capacity in a recent auction, managing director Jonathan Cole said.

*A final investment decision for the Baltic Eagle and Wikinger Sud projects is due in late 2019 or early 2020, with production set to commence in 2022, an aggressive development timeline versus some North Sea projects due in 2025, Cole said.

*The 476 MW Baltic Eagle project received a minimum guaranteed power price from the German regulator of 64 euros per megawatt/hour, while the 10 MW Wikinger Sud has no guaranteed price, Cole said.

*Baltic Eagle will be 12-13 nautical miles from the currently under-construction 350 MW Wikinger wind farm, enabling cost savings through pooling of infrastructure.

*The auction offering 1.6 gigawatts was four to five times over-subscribed, Cole said.

*The Baltic Eagle guaranteed price underscores the falling cost of offshore wind. Scottish Power Renewables' 714 MW East Anglia ONE Offshore Wind Farm in the southern North Sea, more benign than the Baltic Sea, set the cost of electricity at 119 pounds per MW/hour in 2015.

(Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by Adrian Croft)