News
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09/07/2021Iberdrola makes progress with its renewable strategy: its installed green capacity grows more than 8.5 % and production in June was up 14 % Iberdrola is making progress in its investment strategy in renewables, increasing its installed capacity by 8.6 % to 35,537 MW in June and bringing its total capacity worldwide to 55,822 MW, after increasing it by 5.1 %. The company is cementing its global leadership in wind power in the first half of 2021, increasing onshore wind capacity by 10.8 % to 18,819 MW. Offshore wind, on the other hand, reached 1,258 MW installed power. In addition to this technology, Iberdrola's solar photovoltaic capacity had almost doubled to 2,207 MW by the end of the first half-year, compared to 1,282 MW in the same period last year. Iberdrola is speeding toward its goal to double its renewable power by 2025, reaching 60,000 MW. This increase in 'green' capacity is taking place in all the core countries where it operates, as well as in its new renewable growth platforms, grouped in the Iberdrola Energía Internacional subsidiary, which has increased its capacity by 114.5 % to 2,105 MW, after moving into new markets such as Australia. In Spain, where the company is currently building 5,400 MW of green generation, renewable capacity has increased by 6.9 % to 17,794 MW. Photovoltaic capacity in the country has multiplied by 2.5 and went from 600 MW of 1,429 MW of photovoltaic power installed at the end of the six-month period. In line with this increase in renewable capacity, energy production increased by 4.6 % overall, to 82,901 Gwh in the first six months of 2021. Renewables are driving this growth, up by 14 %: Solar production increased by 108.9 %, offshore by 17.4 % and hydroelectric by 19.7 %. The thrust of renewable energies in Spain is seen in green production, which grew by 29.8 % to 16.478 Gwh with respect to the first six months of 2020. In terms of production, Iberdrola Energía Internacional made a significant contribution, increasing by 47.6 % to exceed 2,000 GWh. In line with the greater contribution from renewables, emissions-free renewable production is 79 % overall and reaches around 89 % in Spain and the United States, 100 % in the United Kingdom and 84 % in Brazil. CO2 emissions stand at around 79 gCO2/kWh, against 87 grams the previous year. In Spain, these emissions fell to 50 gCO2/kWh, from 66 gCO2/kWh in the first half of 2020. READ MORE
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08/07/2021León welcomes the 'Prado Museum in the Streets' exhibition León welcomes the "Prado in the Streets" exhibition, sponsored by Fundación Iberdrola España and the Prado Museum, in collaboration with the Government of Castile and Leon and the City Council. This is the third stop for this travelling exhibition that started in Salamanca and made its last stop in Valladolid and which will visit the nine regional provinces to raise awareness and promote the collections and historical heritage of the Prado Museum through a variety of educational programmes and cultural activities. The exhibition, which recreates a visit to the museum where the paintings can be viewed in their real dimensions, creating an experience similar to that of standing in front of an authentic work of art, can be visited between 8 July and 2 August in the Plaza de Regla, one of the city's most emblematic spaces. The Mayor of León, José Antonio Diez; the Chairman of Fundación Iberdrola España, Fernando García; the General Director of Cultural Policies with the Junta de Castile and León, José Ramón González, and the General Coordinator of Education at the Prado Museum, Ana Moreno, inaugurated this successful cultural initiative this morning that will bring 50 of the most important works from the Museum's Permanent Collection to the people of León through full-scale photographic reproductions. A journey through the history of Western art This large, open-air exhibition, curated by Fernando Pérez Suescun, Head of Educational Content at the Prado Museum, enables visitors to tour the different artistic schools covered by the Prado Museum's permanent collections and learn about the history of Spain, Europe and Western art in general, as painted by the great masters. The Spanish, Italian, Flemish, French, German and Dutch schools are represented through artists from the 12th century to the early 20th century. The exhibition also has bilingual information panels for each work of art, as well as details on the history of the Museum and its collections. The reproductions are shown at a scale of 1:1, however, due to the dimensions of the exhibition stands, this means that, for some of the larger works, only a magnificent and striking part of the work can be seen, with a smaller representation of the entire painting shown in the explanatory panel. In the wake of the enormous success of the exhibition during the celebration of the Museum’s two-hundredth anniversary, “Prado in the Streets" travelled around Castile-La Mancha until 26 April. In almost two years, thousands of visitors have had the chance to behold some of the wonders the Museum holds thanks to these accurate reproductions, spreading culture across the region with daily visits that never failed to observe the applicable anti-COVID-19 rules. "Prado in the Streets" started its tour of Castile-Leon in Salamanca on 30 April, and for the next ten months it will stop off at other cities in the region as well as Salamanca, Valladolid, its last stop, and León, where it opened today, the other cities it will visit include Leon, Aguilar de Campoo, Burgos, Soria, Segovia, Ávila and Benavente. The Fundación Iberdrola España is a Protector member of the Prado Museum The Fundación Iberdrola España focuses a key part of its activity on caring for and maintaining Spain’s cultural and artistic wealth. The Foundation has been working with the Prado Museum since 2010 by supporting the gallery’s conservation and restoration programmes, as well as offering four annual grants to young restorers. It was also keen to join in the Special Programme for the Prado Museum’s bicentenary celebrations, especially with the launch of this travelling exhibition in Spain. Since 2011, Fundación Iberdrola España has allocated a total of €13 million to art and culture, focusing its resources primarily on the Restoration Programme to support the restoration workshops in leading museums for the conservation of their pictorial and artistic heritage. The Foundation also supports the Lighting Programme, which includes the design, implementation and financing of artistic projects to light iconic buildings and monuments. READ MORE
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08/07/2021“Our alliance is showing that companies from all over Europe are taking rapid climate-related measures” Ignacio Galán, the chairman of Iberdrola group, and the CEOs of a further 11 European companies are continuing to join forces to work towards an emissions-free future and to make Europe more resilient. They are doing so via the European CEO Alliance, an initiative that supports the goals of the Paris Agreement for 2050, the EU Green Deal and greater ambition with respect to achieving the Union's climate targets. The alliance has transferred a series of recommendations regarding the Fit for 55 legislative package being prepared by the European Commission: * Addressing climate change requires a close collaboration between the public sector and industry. * Reviewing the EU's principal regulatory instruments, especially the subsidies for technologies with high CO2 emissions. * Strong signal of the price of carbon as a central tool of the decarbonisation strategy — they propose a European carbon price fixing system —, as well as the continuous improvement of the EU's Emissions Trading System —for the energy and heavy industry sectors— and the implementation of additional specific limit and trade systems within the sector which would be applied to mobility, transportation and construction. * Decarbonisation of mobility, transportation and buildings are the main challenges: o Electrical mobility has shown itself to be the most efficient technology in terms of energy consumption and emission reduction. The members of the CEO Alliance have embarked upon a series of intersectoral projects designed to increase the production of batteries and create a charging point infrastructure across Europe. o European Commission Building Renovation Wave: they are asking for fossil fuel heating systems to be rapidly replaced with electrical heat pumps , urban heating and digital solutions and committed to applying this recommendation to the buildings owned by their companies. * The CEO Alliance is working on a project for integrating electrical systems, in particular grids, with the aim being to create a system based mainly on renewable energies and flexible solutions. READ MORE
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07/07/2021Iberdrola will build and operate a self-consumption photovoltaic plant for Lactalis at its cheese factory in Villarrobledo (Albacete) Iberdrola and Lactalis are joining forces in their respective business and sustainability strategies with the signing of a long-term on site renewable energy purchase agreement (PPA, Power Purchase Agreement) , whereby the energy company will supply green electricity for a period of 15 years, but extendable to 25 years, to the multinational dairy food company at its largest cheese production plant in Spain, located in Villarrobledo (Albacete) with brands such as El Ventero, Gran Capitán and Don Bernardo. The photovoltaic installation will consist of 5,796 panels, will have an installed capacity of 2,300 kWp and will occupy a site covering approximately 40,000 m2. Operational in March 2022, it will prevent the emission of 1,700 tCO2/year into the atmosphere - the equivalent of taking 594 new cars off the road each year or preventing the annual CO2 emissions of 138 households- and up to 25,000 tCO2 during the first 15 years of the contract. The self-consumption facility at the Villarrobledo factory will be built and operated by Iberdrola as part of its smart solutions developments designed specifically for customers. The agreement reinforces Iberdrola's renewable strategy through bilateral contracts, which promote the supply of clean energy at competitive and stable prices for large companies committed to sustainable consumption. In this case, as it is an on site PPA, the infrastructure is also maximised by making the most of the factory's surface area. Iberdrola is a benchmark in the field of PPAs worldwide in all their forms, and it manages long-term power purchase agreements in markets including Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico and Australia, from both wind and photovoltaic projects, with an installed capacity of more than 6,500 MW. In Spain, the company has pioneered this formula with companies in sectors such as banking, telecommunications, the brewing and food industry, distribution, the chemical industry and sports brands. With this agreement, the Lactalis Group is progressing in its commitment to reduce the impact of its activity on the environment and means that, from the first quarter of 2022, 75 % of the electricity consumed at the cheese plant in Albacete will come from renewable sources (solar and wind). Environmental commitment is one of the main pillars of Grupo Lactalis , which continues to make progress in implementing environmentally-friendly initiatives that contribute to the circular economy. The company has also made significant progress in reducing water consumption, waste management and packaging sustainability. Currently, all Lactalis factories in Spain work with clean fuel and at the packaging level, the Group continues to work on its eco-design, promoting the use of recycled materials that are 100 % recyclable. Renewables for a green recovery Iberdrola has been leading the energy transition for two decades, acting as a key driving force in the transformation of the industrial fabric and the green recovery of the economy and employment. To this end, it has launched a historic investment plan of 150 billion euros over the next decade, 75 billion euros by 2025, to triple renewable capacity and double network assets and take advantage of the opportunities of the energy revolution facing the world's leading economies. In Spain, investments to 2025 amount to 14.3 billion euros and it is the leader in the renewable sector with an installed capacity of 17,500 MW, which this investment plan will increase to 25,000 MW. After investments of 120 billion euros in the last twenty years, Iberdrola is a leader in renewable energy with 35,000 MW installed worldwide; a volume that makes its generation park one of the cleanest in the energy sector. With emissions of 28 gCO2/kWh, which is already two-thirds lower than the European average, Iberdrola's strategy of investing in clean energy and networks will lead Iberdrola to be a "carbon neutral" company in Europe by 2030. READ MORE
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06/07/2021Iberdrola seeks 'micromobility' solutions Iberdrola is taking another step forward in its commitment to electric mobility . The company has launched a new challenge - through its PERSEO International Start-up Programme - to identify 'micromobility' solutions for parking, storage and recharging bicycles and scooters that favour the electrification of urban transport. Mobility using this type of vehicle is not only more efficient and environmentally friendly, but also greatly helps to relieve congestion in cities at times of heavy traffic, thus helping to improve air quality. The energy company is looking for innovative solutions to ensure secure parking against theft and vandalism, to provide charging points for private users and fleets and to offer digital solutions for its management. The proposals will be assessed taking into account criteria related to cyber security and data protection, remote monitoring and land use optimisation. In addition, the cost, maturity and suitability of the project will be assessed, along with its simplicity and scalability and the proposal's degree of digitalisation to optimise efficiency, among other variables. Proposals can be submitted from 5 July until 31 July inclusive and the winner will be announced in September. Financial and technical support Iberdrola will provide the winner of the challenge with technical and financial support to test its solution. It will provide the necessary resources to deliver it: equipment and materials, infrastructure, high-tech sites and co-working areas, as well as a real environment with real data. If the pilot project is successful, Iberdrola may also offer the winner the opportunity to scale up the solution by adopting it through commercial agreements and PERSEO may even consider investing in the company that wins the challenge. Electric mobility and green recovery Iberdrola remains committed to the electrification of transport in its transition strategy for the transition to a decarbonised economy, and sees this as a key lever for reducing emissions and pollution, as well as for the green recovery of the economy and employment. The company is implementing a sustainable mobility plan through which it will install 150,000 recharging points in homes, businesses, urban roads, cities and major motorways over the next few years. Its commitment to the deployment of high-efficiency stations will see the installation of ultra-fast (350 kW), super-fast (150 kW) and fast (50 kW) stations. It has recently expanded its commitment to sustainable mobility to include electric motorbikes and, together with Cooltra and Inetum, it is deploying smart charging banks in cities, each capable of housing 20 chargers and multi-brand motorbike batteries. Together with BeePlanet, it has also just launched the first electric vehicle charging points powered by second-life batteries. Iberdrola is aware of the need to boost electric mobility in Spain through coordinated, effective action involving the major players. In this regard, the company has already completed more than 50 infrastructure deployment agreements with administrations, institutions, companies, service stations, dealers and electric vehicle manufacturers. Perseo: more than 10 years of innovation PERSEO, Iberdrola's international start-up programme, aims to facilitate the group’s access to the technologies of the future and foster the creation and development of a global and dynamic ecosystem of technology companies and entrepreneurs in the electricity sector. To achieve this, in addition to the 70 million euros allocated to the initiative, a further 40 million euros have now been allocated to launch, through its Perseo Venture Builder unit, innovative industrial companies working in new areas of electrification and in sectors that are difficult to decarbonise. Since its creation in 2008, PERSEO has invested 70 million euros in start-ups that develop innovative technologies and business models, focusing on those that improve the sustainability of the energy sector through greater electrification and decarbonisation of the economy. The programme has focused its actions on analysing business opportunities and technological collaboration with start-ups and emerging companies around the world, analysing 300 companies each year and creating an ecosystem of almost 3,000 entrepreneurial companies. This investment instrument currently has a portfolio of eight companies. READ MORE
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02/07/2021Iberdrola signs a framework agreement with Navantia and Windar for future offshore wind farms worth 400 million euros Friday, 2 July 2021.- Iberdrola advances in its growth strategy in the offshore wind market and strengthens its role as a driving force in the local industry, after signing a framework collaboration agreement with Windar and Navantia for the manufacture and supply of 130 XXL monopile foundations. Through this agreement, Iberdrola could place orders with these manufacturers worth up to 400 million euros between 2023 and 2025 for future offshore wind farms and it secures the preferential supply of a portion of these components for the coming years. From this signing, the consortium formed by Windar and Navantia will start up an XXL monopile factory on land at the Navantia shipyard in Fene (A Coruña). The construction of this factory will improve the capabilities of the Navantia shipyard in Fene, providing it with a new product within the fixed marine foundations sector. This diversification was not accessible until now because it required very specific facilities, with the monopile being the star product in the foundations market over the last decade, which will continue in the coming years. The investment planned by Windar-Navantia includes the adaptation of a building for curving thick sheet metal with a diameter of up to 16 m, new paint booths and storage areas for finished products, as well as the latest technology equipment necessary for manufacturing. The new XXL monopile factory, which will manufacture foundations over 100 m long and weighing up to 2,500 t, will be available within 13 months and will be located in a part of the Fene shipyard facility, without interfering with the production facilities for the construction of other offshore wind products, such as jackets and floating structures. Energy transition and green recovery This initiative reinforces the commitment by the companies to the energy transition and its contribution to a green recovery and employment through renewable projects for the future. It also strengthens a relationship spanning more than seven years between Iberdrola and Navantia-Windar, which between them have contracts worth close to 1.3 billion euros. The projects successfully executed for Iberdrola by the consortium at the Navantia Fene and Puerto Real (Cádiz) shipyards include the Wikinger offshore wind farms in the German waters of the Baltic Sea; East Anglia One, off the United Kingdom coast; the new Saint Brieuc wind farm, in French Brittany waters; and two substations for the latter two wind farms, awarded to Navantia. In addition, Windar will make the transition parts for the wind farm that the energy company will build in the United States, Vineyard I. A year ago, Iberdrola awarded the Navantia-Windar joint venture a contract for the construction of 62 jackets to support the offshore wind turbines and the piles required for their installation at the Saint Brieuc wind farm in France. The contract, worth 350 million euros, was the largest in Navantia-Windar's history in the offshore wind sector. Since then, the consortium has been manufacturing these jackets at the Fene shipyard and Windar's factories in Avilés. The final assembly of all the component parts will be completed at the Galician shipyard facilities. More than 2,000 professionals are directly employed in all this work. In addition to this, several thousand jobs will be generated in local contractors, both in Spain and in France, where Navantia-Windar has a production unit in the port of Brest, where jacket components for the fleet are manufactured. Towards global leadership Letting these contracts demonstrates the opportunities offered by a market of the future, offshore wind — in which Iberdrola is moving towards global leadership — and how the green economy has become a major aspect of industrialisation and sustainable, quality employment. Offshore wind has been confirmed as one of Iberdrola's growth vectors: it has 1,300 MW installed — Wikinger , East Anglia ONE and West of Duddon Sands — and will triple this capacity with the current construction of 2,600 MW. The group's current portfolio in this technology totals 20,000 MW, of which 9,000 MW are ready for construction and more than 10,000 MW are planned for development in markets including the United States, Sweden, Japan, Poland and Ireland. By 2030, Iberdrola expects to reach 12,000 MW in operation. Green investments to promote economic recovery and employment Iberdrola has been leading the energy transition for two decades and acting as a key driving force in the transformation of the industrial fabric and the green recovery of the economy and employment. The company has launched a historic investment plan worth 150 bn euros over the next decade — 75 billion euros by 2025 — to triple renewable capacity and double network assets and take advantage of the opportunities offered by the energy revolution facing the world's leading economies. Having invested €120 bn in the last twenty years promoting the energy transition, Iberdrola is a leader in renewable energy with nearly 35,000 MW installed; a volume that makes its generation park one of the cleanest in the energy sector. With emissions of 28 gCO2/kWh, which is already two-thirds lower than the European average, Iberdrola's strategy of investing in clean energy and networks will lead Iberdrola to be a "carbon neutral" company in Europe by 2030. READ MORE
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30/06/2021Iberdrola is promoting the Energy for Future (E4F) postdoctoral research fellowship programme with 15 European and American universities Iberdrola reinforces its commitment to research as a tool to promote knowledge and innovation and contribute to the consolidation of a more sustainable development model. Through Fundación Iberdrola España and in collaboration with the European Commission's Research Executive Agency (REA), it will promote the international postdoctoral research programme Energy for Future (E4F), which will launch its first call for proposals on July 1st, 2021 (www.europeanenergyforfuture.com ) The project will have a joint funding of more than 4 million euros for the next five years and will promote research projects focused on the main technologies associated with the energy transition and the green transformation of the economy: photovoltaic and wind energy, the evolution of the electric vehicle, energy storage solutions and the consolidation of smart grids. With a duration of 5 years, divided into two calls of 24 months each, it will have the participation of 28 Experienced Researchers — 14 per call. To facilitate geographic mobility and the transfer of knowledge between academia and industry, the programme includes periods of 18 to 21 months at universities and research centres, as well as professional stays of 3 to 6 months at Iberdrola's headquarters in the USA, Mexico, the UK and Spain. The research will be carried out at 15 European and American universities: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Rochester Institute of Technology, in the USA; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; University of Strathclyde and Imperial College of London, in the United Kingdom; Université de Bordeaux, in France; and Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, in Germany. In Spain, eight centres will participate: Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III, Universidad de Cantabria, Universidad Pontificia de Comillas, Universidad del País Vasco, Universidad de Salamanca, IMDEA Energía and Polymat - Basque centre for Macromolecular Design and Engineering. Programme Presentation The Energy for Future (E4F) programme was presented during a virtual meeting of post-doctoral researchers, research centres and universities with interests in the clean, sustainable energy sector. Taking part in the meeting were Agustín Delgado, director of Innovation and Sustainability at Iberdrola; Manuel Gómez Herrero, from the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) of the European Commission; Ramón Castresana, director of Fundación Iberdrola España; Teresa Rodríguez de Tembleque, head of Training and Research Programmes at Fundación Iberdrola España; Dharik Mallapragada, research scientist at MIT Energy Initiative; and Sheila Duncan, Human Resources Director at ScottishPower. Iberdrola, with excellence in training. This initiative substitutes the scholarship programme for young researchers promoted by Fundación Iberdrola España since 2011, to which it has already allocated more than 3 million euros to promote the development of 180 researchers. It is also part of Iberdrola's commitment to excellence in training. Fundación Iberdrola collaborates with scholarship programmes of various institutions such as the Fulbright Commission, which each year calls for Iberdrola-Fullbright scholarships; Fundación Carolina, which has a programme for Mexican and Brazilian students; and the restoration workshops of the Museo Nacional del Prado and the Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, which allow future specialists to complete their training in the conservation and restoration programmes of these institutions. READ MORE
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30/06/2021Ignacio Galán explains Iberdrola’s plans in France at the Choose France meeting, chaired by Enmanuel Macron Ignacio Galán took part in the Choose France meeting, organised by the French government to promote foreign investment and showcase the country’s economic attractiveness. The event, held in Versailles, was chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron and was attended by a dozen of the world’s leading business representatives. * Iberdrola’s chairman held meetings with various French authorities such as the Industry Minister, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, and the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, as well as with the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton. * He underlined the company’s commitment to France and its contribution to the green recovery by promoting the energy transition in a country where the company plans to invest 4 billion euros by 2025, mainly in renewable energy projects . * Its main projects in France include the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm, construction on which began in May and which will involve an investment of 2.4 billion euros. * The group awards orders worth almost €1 billion a year to French companies such as Eiffage, Nexans, Vinci and Schneider. * Its renewable projects include Aalto Power, a company acquired in June 2020, which operates 118 MW of onshore wind and has a portfolio of 700 MW in wind and photovoltaic projects under development. * In addition to its activity as a developer of onshore and offshore wind energy, Iberdrola operates as a clean energy retailer. It currently has a customer base of 400,000 customers and aims to reach one million supply points by 2023. READ MORE
