News
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12/06/2020The Iberdrola SuperA Awards expand their reach, with the Iberdrola SuperA+ category, for projects undertaken during the COVID-19 crisis Iberdrola has decided to expand the scope of its Iberdrola SuperA Awards by creating the New Iberdrola SuperA+ category. It will recognize and support the best charitable initiative that has been undertaken during the COVID-19 crisis by athletes, federations or other organisations related to the world of sport. Faced with the coronavirus pandemic, the company has made it a priority to protect the health and safety of all its employees, ensure supply and continue to contribute to society, through boosting the economy and employment in all the communities in which it is present. In this vein, and in order not to leave aside sports projects and initiatives that promote the sport practiced by women, Iberdrola has decided to go ahead with the first in a new category of these awards, which aims to become a benchmark in gender equality in sports. Iberdrola is, thus, adding the SuperA+ category to the other five initially contemplated in the call for entries to the Iberdrola SuperA Awards and it will also be endowed with a prize of 50,000 euros. In addition, all the categories share the ultimate goal of recognizing and giving visibility to the best initiatives launched in Spain to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women through the practice of sports: * Iberdrola SuperA Base: will recognize programmes focused on promoting grassroots sport among girls and on improving their health, social integration and quality of life. * Iberdrola SuperA Competition: will support initiatives that promote the inclusion of women in competitions. * Iberdrola SuperA Inclusion: will recognize projects that are an example and reference in the field of the integration of women athletes with special needs. * Iberdrola SuperA Social: will reward actions that promote the social integration of girls and/or women through practicing sport. * Iberdrola SuperA Dissemination: will support plans that have become a reference for the dissemination and visibility of sport practiced by women and that contribute to conveying the importance of the role of women in sport and in society. Iberdrola has also decided to extend the deadline for the submission of entries until 31 August. Projects can now be submitted through the website www.premiosiberdrolasupera.es by natural persons, legal entities, associations, clubs and national and autonomous region sports federations; schools, colleges and other public or private entities that have undertaken or are currently managing a sports activity or a project in line with the objectives of these awards. The final judgement will be made by an honorary jury, composed of renowned personalities from the sports world, after a first evaluation by a technical commission appointed by Iberdrola. The winners will be announced at the Iberdrola SuperA Awards, scheduled for the last quarter of the year. With these awards, the company is able to advance its strong commitment to United Nations 2030 Agenda Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, gender equality. Iberdrola, pioneer in promoting women's sport Promoting women's sport has become a key tool for Iberdrola and the promotion of real equality between men and women has become one of its essential values. In line with its commitment to SDG 5, in 2016, Iberdrola became the first company to make a firm and global commitment to women's equality and empowerment through sport. Iberdrola currently supports 16 federations: gymnastics, triathlon, rugby, canoeing, badminton, football, handball, volleyball, hockey, table tennis, athletics, karate, boxing, surfing, ice sports and fencing. Iberdrola also lends its name to 22 national top-tier sports leagues, and over 35 competitions. In parallel, by contributing resources, facilities, medical services and officials, as well as the promoting and sponsoring various initiatives in this area the Iberdrola Group has not only helped to increase the number of federated members by 32% in the disciplines mentioned to over 316,000, but it is also allowing elite Spanish athletes who have had to move to other countries to now return to compete in Spain, helping to increase the level and visibility of national competitions. READ MORE
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09/06/2020Iberdrola provides support for Basque suppliers with more than 2.2 billion euros in awards in the last 18 months Today, Iberdrola has once again demonstrated its support for the Basque industrial fabric by signing five new agreements, each with leading suppliers, Ingeteam, Tamoin, Ormazabal-Velatia, MESA and the Arteche group, for the supply of equipment and services aimed at furthering the energy transition. These agreements are in addition to the more than 2.2 billion euros awarded by Iberdrola to Basque companies in the last 18 months alone, of which 500 million euros went to the five companies mentioned. The signing of these agreements took place this morning during an event held at the Iberdrola Tower, under the banner Iberdrola group agreements with Basque companies for the supply of equipment and services. The energy transition, a motor for growth and employment, which was attended by Iberdrola's Chairman, Ignacio Galán, and the Lehendakari, Íñigo Urkullu. The Basque Councillor for Economic Development and Infrastructures, Arantxa Tapia, the President of Biscay Regional Council, Unai Rementería, and representatives of the five signatory suppliers were also present: Javier Ormazabal, Chairman of Ormazabal Velatia; Teresa Madariaga, Chairwoman of Ingeteam; Alexander Arteche, Chairman of Grupo Arteche; Antonio Barrenechea, Chairman of Tamoin, and Frederic Alves Ferreira Rebelo, Managing Director of MESA. "A magnificent opportunity for Basque industry” In his speech, Galán affirmed that the signing of these contracts makes it very clear that “Basque Country industry is a forerunner in Europe in an area denoted by the European Commission as key to the recovery and future of the continent: energy transition”. In this sense, he indicated that both the Next Generation EU in Brussels and the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan “represent a magnificent opportunity for Basque industry, which has excellent experience and competitiveness in areas such as intelligent networks, electric vehicles and recharging systems, electrification of air conditioning and, of course, renewable energies”. We are only at the beginning of a great transformation. The consensus on the huge investments needed to make the energy transition a reality is unanimous. And we have access to the talent, technology and financial resources to make it possible. So, in 2020, Iberdrola's investments will accelerate to reach 10 billion euros, almost doubling the average of recent years. To achieve this objective, the company has advanced orders for 4,200 million euros to its suppliers in recent months, which has allowed it to continue to exert a driving force on the business and industrial fabric of the regions in which it is present. READ MORE
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08/06/2020Iberdrola completes the only map that shows the operational public electric charging infrastructure in Spain Iberdrola has completed the only mapping to check the operational public electric charging infrastructure in Spain. The information can be found on its Public Charging App and includes, so far, over 3,600 electric vehicle charging points on the public highway at 1,200 locations throughout the country. Over a period of 7 months, a team of 20 people from Iberdrola's Smart Mobility team has been collecting data from the field for subsequent analysis and filtering to assess their validity for publication on the App. The existence and functioning of the charging points and their technical specifications have been verified for the first time. This process has meant the exclusion, for example, of charging points in private use, those where there was just a socket rather than an actual charging point, as well as those that were switched off or out of order. In addition, information has been gathered about other types that could be incorporated in subsequent App updates, such as electric motorbike and cycle chargers. The public charging network is constantly expanding, so the work continues to grow with a regular review programme to check that the information published on the App is still valid, and new charging points are identified. Through Iberdrola's Public Charging App users can geo-locate, book and pay for charging at Iberdrola-managed points using a mobile phone whether they are Iberdrola customers or not. Plus, it now includes verified and updated information for the remaining charging points operated by other companies in Spain. The App, available from Google Play and the App Store, is already being used by almost 40,000 individual users. Two new features for electric vehicle users The initiative has included the addition of two new features to the Iberdrola Public Charging App so that users can share information with the electric vehicle users community. One of them allows the existence of a charging point that is not included in the App to be reported. In this case, the Iberdrola team will visit the site, gather information and check the data before uploading it onto the App. The system likewise allows the reporting of charging point information errors, which will also be checked before updating. Full speed ahead with the sustainable mobility plan In March Iberdrola took the decision to "step on the accelerator" and give its sustainable mobility plan a boost , by ear-marking extra investment - a total of €150m - to speed up the roll out of electric vehicle charging points over the next 5 years. The ambition of the project remains intact despite the coronavirus and the company is confident that electrification, and electric mobility in particular, will become the lever to economic revitalisation post-COVID. Iberdrola's new mobility plan predicts the roll out of 150,000 charging points for electric vehicles — at homes, business premises, and on the public highway — in cities and on the main thoroughfares and motorways over the coming 5 years. On the highway, the company is opting for the deployment of rapid chargers and will provide ultra-rapid (350 kW) charging stations every 200 kilometres, super-rapid (150 kW) every 100 kilometres and rapid (50 kW), every 50 kilometres. Electric car users who use Iberdrola's sustainable mobility infrastructure charge their vehicles with 100 % green energy from clean generation sources with Guarantee of Origin (GoO) certificates. READ MORE
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05/06/2020Iberdrola has carried out more than 1,450 activities to protect biodiversity around the world since 2018 Iberdrola, committed to preserving healthy ecosystems as a crucial aspect of sustainable growth, has carried out more than 1,450 actions related to protecting biodiversity in the last two years. All this appears in the Biodiversity Report 2018-2019 , published to coincide with World Environment Day . According to the report, during 2018, Iberdrola carried out more than 650 actions in this area, and more than 800 in 2019. These practices are in line with the Iberdrola group Biodiversity Policy , approved by the Board of Directors, the purpose of which is to include conservation of biodiversity in the planning and subsequent development of all the company's activities. To make progress in this regard, Iberdrola has committed to achieving zero net biodiversity loss by 2030. To achieve this, it will continue to apply the highest standards of protection based on the hierarchy of mitigation and will work shoulder to shoulder with the scientific community, administration and non-governmental organisations to develop and implement methodologies that quantify the impact of biodiversity and its ecosystem services. It will continue to encourage biodiversity preservation, collaborating on conservation projection with its stakeholders. In Spain, Iberdrola has been developing a programme for the adaptation of power lines to prevent electrocutions for many years, with which it has adapted tens of thousands of supports in areas declared to be bird protection areas. The improvements made to the power lines consist of lining the different phases and connections of the supports, increasing the safety distance, replacing the crossarms with others specially designed to protect birds and installing anti-nesting devices, among other measures. In addition, more than 2,700 electric line maintenance and renovation actions have been carried out to reduce all types of risks in these facilities, where bird protection elements have been fitted and armor and insulators have been renewed to reduce the risk of damage to fauna. Among the actions to protect and manage vegetation, Iberdrola has allocated 40 million euros in the last two years to initiatives such as the Flash, which carries out an exhaustive analysis of all the power lines, as well as the environment, using a helicopter with a LIDAR (Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging) camera. In 2019 alone, nearly 30,000 kilometers of power lines were checked, almost twice the distance between Puerta del Sol and Antarctica. Among the biodiversity actions in construction projects, the environmental protection plan developed at the photovoltaic solar plant in Núñez de Balboa , in Extremadura, stands out. During its execution, orchid species of special interest were avoided, an area for the sighting of Montagu's harrier was excluded from the project area, and it was fenced off on site for its protection, and specific measures were taken to respect the mating periods of the bustard and the nests of the bee-eater and long-eared owl. In addition, a Conservation Plan has been developed around two cattle ponds and nest boxes have been placed in all the line's supports adapted for Lesser Kestrel and Common Kestrel. The enormous Southern Europe battery gets 1,000 sampling stations Another of Iberdrola’s large-scale renewable projects, the Támega hydro-electric complex in Portugal, also required painstaking specific analyses of fauna, flora, habitats, water assets, etc. This complex will consist of three power stations, one of which is a pump system set to become Southern Europe’s largest battery. Among other measures, the group continuously monitors flora and fauna, with eight environmental specialists on site and specific programmes by species: mammals, Iberian wolf, birds, bats, fish, freshwater mussels, invertebrates, protected flora, otter and Pyrenean desman. Iberdrola also has 20 biologists for ad hoc tasks, 1,000 sampling stations and 80,000 hours spent monitoring species. Also in this project and always under the supervision of environmental experts, more than 2,000 amphibians, 23,000 freshwater mussels, 41,000 fish and nearly 1,500 specimens of protected flora have been moved, as well as another 500 specimens of various reptiles, birds and mammals. Protection and study of porpoises in the North Sea Among Iberdrola's most outstanding environmental plans is the East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm in UK waters. Located 43 kilometres off the coast and with a capacity of 714 megawatts, it has required important measures to protect marine fauna. For example, a Specific Marine Mammal Mitigation Protocol (MMMP) was designed before work began and implemented during offshore construction to avoid or minimise potential injury or disturbance to marine mammals. On the same lines, the company is currently carrying out a research project in the area, which aims to use data on underwater noise gathered before, during and after the installation of wind turbine foundations at sea to improve the prediction models of these animals' reactions. A biodiversity corridor in Iguazú and condors with radio frequency in California While building the Baixo Iguaçu hydroelectric plant which was commissioned in 2019 by Neoenergia, Iberdrola’s Brazilian subsidiary, a company listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange, a biodiversity corridor was created to connect forests and permanent conservation areas of the plant with protected areas of the Iguaçu National Park. This corridor will allow fauna to be transferred to the remaining forest, creating a suitable habitat for the development and conservation of species. Also on the other side of the Atlantic, Avangrid, a subsidiary of the Iberdrola group listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is carrying out numerous actions for biodiversity. One of its most avant-garde facilities is the Manzana wind farm in California Most of the condors in this State have been fitted with radio frequency devices and GPS technologies to track their movements. So, when a condor carrying a transmitter crosses the boundary of the geofence that the company has installed in this wind farm, the Avangrid National Control Centre slows down some of the turbines in the vicinity of the condor to minimise the potential risk. Another major project in the Americas is run by the Iberdrola Mexico Foundation, in partnership with Pronatura, the Government of Durango and its Secretariat of Natural Resources and Environment, which is conserving and protecting the Fernandez Canyon, one of the most important nature reserves in northern Mexico. The project is restoring the Cañón de Fernández state park, one of northern Mexico’s most valuable nature reserves and home to more than 580 species of flora and fauna on 17,000 hectares of protected land. READ MORE
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05/06/2020Iberdrola is backing the ‘Race to Zero’, a global alliance to join forces towards a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 Iberdrola, as a benchmark company in the fight against climate change and in support of the global climate agenda, has joined the global ‘Race to Zero’ alliance driven by the United Nations, the COP26 presidency and the climate champions1 of this COP and of the COP 25 held in Madrid, Nigel Topping and Gonzalo Muñoz, respectively. The aim of ‘Race to Zero’ is to mobilise and unite efforts by cities, regions, businesses and investors to build a carbon-neutral, healthier and more resilient recovery. The ultimate goal of this initiative is to achieve an emissions-neutral economyby 2050. This will reduce future threats from the repercussions of climate change and contribute towards the creation of quality employment and a strong path for sustainable and inclusive growth. The organisations behind this initiative as well as its supporters, like Iberdrola, are of the opinion that after the COVID-19 health crisis there is an undeniable need to prioritise steps for economic recovery that allow for advancement towards an emissions-neutral economy, with all the changes that implies (fundamentally renewable energy, electrification of transport, etc.). On the same lines, the ‘Race to Zero’ considers that “we have the opportunity to emerge from this emergency by resetting the world economy”. Iberdrola is backing the stance of this initiative with the conviction that “ensuring the health and prosperity of people and the planet is possible if we take brave decisions today so that future generations can live and flourish in a better world”. Based on these principles ‘Race to Zero’ has been launched today by some of the leading voices and authorities in climate matters and world health: the president of COP26, Alok Sharma; the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa; the president of COP25, Carolina Schmidt, and the WHO’s director of Public Health, María Neira, among others. During the presentation it was made clear that, once the health crisis is over, we must plan the rebuilding of the economy, paying attention to governments' stimulus packages. According to ‘Race to Zero’, the size and planning of these support measures — between US$10 trillion and US$20 trillion — will shape our economy for the coming decades. Iberdrola - a presence in the main climate discussions and alliances Iberdrola has supported international negotiations on climate change by taking part in all the Climate Summits and global climate agenda milestones with special emphasis since the Paris COP 21. Its Chairman and CEO, Ignacio Galán, supported the Paris Agreement with his presence at the signing ceremony held at the United Nations Headquarters in April 2016. The company forms part of the main global climate alliances such as We Mean Business, the World Business Council For Sustainable Development, and the Climate Ambition Alliance and Business Ambition for 1.5°C, both present at the birth of ‘Race to Zero’. Galán was also one of the first business leaders to support the objective of reaching zero net emissions by 2050, both in the global context and at European level, positioning himself at the very head of the most ambitious climate policies. The Chairman and CEO of the group also backs climate change aims before the governments and organisations that meet at the UN General Assembly held every year in September, and in which he took part in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Ignacio Galán is also one of the group of CEOs who have led the support for a solid risk reporting and management framework regarding climate change, based on the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TFCD) . 1 Powerful figures in the promotion of action on climate change and public participation in the global climate agenda initiatives. READ MORE
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04/06/2020Iberdrola advances green recovery by commissioning first major wind complex in Spain since the health crisis Iberdrola has begun operating its Cavar wind power complex in the Spanish region of Navarre, the first major wind farm commissioned in Spain since the health crisis. With an installed capacity of 111 megawatts (MW), it is also the company’s largest wind farm built in Spain since 2012. Just in time for World Environment Day , Iberdrola makes progress towards a green recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. According to Ignacio Galán, the Chairman and CEO of the Iberdrola group, this complex, which is already pumping clean energy into the grid, “is a great example of our potential to create jobs and drive prosperity if we pursue a low-carbon economy and steer our investments towards promising sectors, such as renewables, smart grids and energy storage.” In fact, constructing the Cavar complex, which took 12 months to complete, has generated over €80 million worth procurement from suppliers, many of which are based in the nearby towns and surrounding area. Practically all of the civil work and the components used to build the wind turbines (towers, blades, nacelles, generators and multipliers) were manufactured in Navarre, Asturias, Cantabria, Soria and Burgos, all in northern Spain. Developed jointly by Iberdrola and Caja Rural de Navarra, the Cavar wind power complex comprises four wind farms with 32 SG 3.4-132 turbines located in two municipalities in Navarre: Cadreita and Valtierra. Building and commissioning the complex has required an investment of over €100 million, backed by green finance from the European Investment Bank (EIB). This new facility will generate as much clean energy as would annually be used by approximately 45,000 households (around 25% of the population of Pamplona) thus preventing 84,000 tonnes of CO2 from being released into the atmosphere every year. Furthermore, in line with their pledge to protect biodiversity, Iberdrola and Caja Rural are closely monitoring several adult specimens of Egyptian vulture who nest in the vicinity of the complex and have been equipped with GPS location systems to help track them during migration. Thanks to new telemetric techniques, this will provide precise insight on the way the reproductive population of this species uses space at a regional level. Renewables, a lever for the recovery of jobs and the economy The commissioning of Cavar means another step forward in Iberdrola’s investment plan which will reach €10 billion in 2020, nearly double the average of the last five years. Electrification will act as a lever for the recovery of jobs and the economy in the post-COVID landscape, as it will generate industrial activity through the entire energy value chain. In Spain, Iberdrola is the leader in renewable energy, with an installed wind capacity of more than 6,000 MW and over 16,500 MW in renewables as a whole; totalling more than 32,000 MW worldwide and making its generation facilities among the cleanest in the energy sector. READ MORE
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04/06/2020Iberdrola is the first multinational listed in the Ibex 35 to gain AENOR certification for its COVID-19 action protocol Iberdrola has become the first multinational listed in the Ibex 35 to gain AENOR certification for its COVID-19 action protocols in compliance with the legal requirements set by the competent authorities and with sector recommendations and guidelines. For now, this certificate applies to the Iberdrola holding, but it will soon extend to all of the companies in the group, proving the success of the action protocols implemented by the company to tackle the coronavirus pandemic so as to secure a quality, reliable supply of electricity while also looking out for people’s health and safety. The certification granted by AENOR to Iberdrola shows the value of the 150+ measures that the company has implemented in a global and coordinated manner over the past few months to support all of its stakeholders during the health crisis: employees, suppliers, shareholders and society as a whole. These measures include having purchased and subsequently donated essential healthcare products worth around €25 million and reinforcing the grid to secure a reliable power supply for hospital facilities. Iberdrola also went out of its way to keep the supply chain going, which meant bringing forward €4 billion worth of orders from over 10,000 suppliers during the first quarter of the year – twice the amount spent in Q1 2019. Committed to employment and employee health and safety Iberdrola has once again demonstrated its commitment to keeping up and creating quality employment during the COVID-19 crisis, having announced its plans to hire thousands of professionals in 2020. The company also succeeded right from the beginning in striking a balance between the need to continue providing society with its essential power supply service and the responsibility to protect the health and safety of each and every employee. Iberdrola sees the well-being of its human capital as a top priority, which is why it was the first multinational to obtain AENOR’s Healthy Company certificate under a year ago, applying to all of the companies in the group that operate in 25 countries. The company is currently endeavouring to improve its various occupational health and safety programmes with a view to raising its management system certification from the current OSHSAS 18001 to ISO 45001, as already achieved by its companies in the UK. READ MORE
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02/06/2020Iberdrola delivers the first 1000 face masks made by volunteers for people with hearing impairments Iberdrola has chosen the Hearing Impairment Association of Madrid to receive its first 1000 specially adapted face masks made by company volunteers and their relatives for people with hearing impairments. These protective masks come with a see-through part to enable lip reading, which helps people with hearing difficulties to communicate with others. Thanks to this first batch, 600 people who belong to this Madrid-based association will be able to communicate more easily with those around them, especially since wearing individual masks is now mandatory. Iberdrola launched this pioneering initiative in collaboration with the Foundation to Promote Development and Integration (FDI), which has received help from 200 Iberdrola volunteers so far. The project involves sending the employees the materials and instructions needed to make the face masks, then sharing out the finished product among the hearing-impaired population through various federations. After delivering this first batch, another 4000 will be distributed in the coming weeks to other associations in Madrid, Valladolid, Valencia, Seville and A Coruña, altogether totalling 5000 face masks. Over 1000 volunteers against COVID-19 in Spain Since the State of Alarm was declared in Spain in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Iberdrola has managed to engage 1000 employees in volunteer work across the country. In a campaign entitled ‘Volunteers against COVID’, these kind-hearted people have taken part from their homes in over 30 projects driven by 19 social organisations, reaching more than 12,000 people in vulnerable situations. The initiatives promoted by Iberdrola included making face masks, producing face shields with 3D printers, organising virtual correspondence between volunteers and isolated elderly citizens in nursing homes, donating electronic devices for senior citizens in isolation in hospitals and nursing homes, providing telephone support for people with disabilities or mental conditions, and telling stories to children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Global action plan against the coronavirus The company’s volunteer work stems from the global plan launched by Iberdrola against the COVID-19 coronavirus , thanks to which it has ensured an uninterrupted and reliable power supply throughout this difficult time – especially for crucial infrastructures – and has responded to the needs of its stakeholders, prioritizing the most vulnerable. The plan involved spending millions of euros on placing health products and sanitary wear at the disposal of public bodies and organisations. READ MORE
