Spanish energy player Iberdrola has raised €1 billion in a fresh financing agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to build 19 solar power plants and 3 onshore wind farms in Spain, Portugal and Germany, representing a combined capacity of 2.2 GW.
While Iberdrola did not specify the capacity bifurcation for individual countries or the project timeline, it shared that these will mostly be located in cohesion regions where per-capita income is lower than EU average. The idea is to boost clean energy and economic growth in these regions and support respective nations' national energy plans.
Some of the solar projects will be in a hybrid mode with wind power and battery energy storage systems all sharing the same connection point. This configuration will ensure a more stable grid supply (see Spain's 'First' Hybrid Wind & Solar Plant).
Power generated by the 2.2 GW capacity when online will be enough to suffice the average annual energy consumption of more than 1 million households.
"As the horrific war in Ukraine has shown, sustainable energy and energy security are two sides of the same coin. To achieve them both, it is vital that we collaborate with companies in the European energy sector such as Iberdrola," said EIB Vice President Ricardo Mourinho Felix who shared the operation is part of its support of the REPowerEU plan.
All of these 22 projects are expected to incur a joint investment of more than €1.7 billion, said Iberdrola. EIB backing will also help the project work on an innovation component to facilitate the integration of renewables into the grid.
This financing round helps further Iberdrola on the path of its target to invest more than €47 billion between 2023 and 2025 for energy transition as it expects to report 100 GW of installed capacity by 2030 with renewable energy making up more than 80% of it.
Last year in December 2022, EIB approved €70 million green loan for Iberdrola's 188 MW PV capacity in Portugal (see Solar Power Activity Picking Up Steam In Portugal).
Iberdrola has also applied for European Union (EU) funding under the Innovation Fund for its planned 1.6 GW solar module manufacturing project in Spain's Extremadura (see 1.6 GW Solar Panel Manufacturing Fab In Spain).