IberBlue Wind is investing €4bn to jointly develop two floating offshore wind farms that straddle the Portuguese–Spanish border. In a statement announcing the news on April 11, the joint venture between Spain’s Proes Consultores and FF New Energy Ventures, and Ireland’s Simply Blue Group, says it is the first cross-border offshore wind project on the Spanish-Portuguese border. 

The Juan Sebastián Elcano wind farm will be located off the coast of the Spanish city of Pontevedra, while the Portuguese project called Creoula will be off the coast of Viana do Castelo. Collectively, they will have a capacity of 1.96 gigawatts, create more than 5000 jobs and be able to power more than one million homes.

By developing the two projects together, rather than separately, IberBlue says it can lower costs by 32%. “This will maximise synergies in resourcing and economies of scale during both the construction phase and operation phases,” the joint venture said in a statement on April 11. 

It comes just weeks after IberBlue announced plans to build a 990-megawatt offshore floating wind project further down Portugal’s coast. 

Ford gets Canadian plant EV-ready

Automaker Ford is investing C$1.8bn ($1.3bn) to transform its assembly plant in the Canadian province of Ontario into an electric vehicle (EV) hub. The plant will be called the Oakville Electric Vehicle Complex, after the town in which it is located, and will include vehicle and battery pack assembly. 

“[This will be a high-volume manufacturing hub for North American EV production, repurposing existing buildings into a state-of-the-art facility that leverages Oakville’s experienced workforce,” the US-headquartered firm said in a statement on April 11 announcing the news.

Ford, which expects its EV unit to post a $3bn loss this year, will begin transforming the facility in 2024. The first EVs are expected to roll off the production line in the beginning of 2025. Last month, the US automaker said that alongside its Indonesian partners, it will invest the equivalent of $4.5bn in sustainable nickel production in the southeast Asian country. 

GM backs lithium start-up

Another US automaker investing to shore up its battery supply chain is GM. The group announced on April 11 that its venture capital arm, GM Ventures, is leading a $50m funding round for US-based lithium technology start-up EnergyX.  

“The collaboration is focused on unlocking the North American supply of lithium, a critical material for EV batteries, by using EnergyX’s innovative process to maximise efficiency while improving sustainability for GM’s rapidly scaling EV production,” the firm said in a statement on the same day.

In January, GM invested $650m in miner Lithium Americas to develop the Thacker Pass mine in Nevada.

And finally: Deutsche Bank is winding down its remaining IT operations in Russia, the Financial Times reported on April 12.