The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Iberdrola have signed a new agreement to accelerate the energy transition in Spain with the development of new renewable capacity. The EU Bank will provide a green loan of 550 million euros for the construction of a portfolio of projects with a total capacity of close to 1,800 megawatts (MW). The set of parks will involve a total investment of more than 1,100 million euros.
These facilities will produce green and competitive energy equivalent to the average annual consumption of nearly one million homes and will create around 2,100 jobs per year during the construction and operation phases.
El BEI will finance photovoltaic plants and wind farms in various Spanish municipalitieslocated mainly in rural areas of Castilla y León and Extremadura, considered cohesion regions by the European Union.
Thus, part of the financing It will go to projects such as the 200 MW Tagus and 80 MW Almaraz photovoltaic plants in Extremadura or the 50 MW Valdemoro wind farm, located in Castilla y León.
The Vice President of the EIB, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, has assured that “the new green loan signed with Iberdrola allows us to increase our contribution to turning Spain into a country with greater renewable capacity, a key factor for Europe to achieve its climate goals. As a Bank of the EU, we continue to support projects aligned with our ‘Climate Roadmap’, while at the same time we promote the security of energy supply in Europe in a current delicate context. We are pleased to support Iberdrola in projects that will generate economic growth and employment in the cohesion regions.”
For his part, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, chairman of Iberdrola, explained that “this financing agreement further strengthens our collaboration with the EIB, it represents a new impetus for our projects in Spain, at a time as important as the current one, in which that we must accelerate the energy transition and reduce dependence on fossil fuels”.
EU target
This operation cContributes to the EU goal of reaching 32% energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption by 2030, as established in the new Directive on RES (Renewable Energy Sources) of the EU, and which the European Commission has recently proposed to increase to a level of 45%. In addition, it favors the fulfillment of the Spanish renewable energy targets for 2030 of 42%, established in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC) 2021-2030.
As it is a loan with 100% eligibility under the climate action/renewable energy framework, as it is dedicated to onshore wind and photovoltaic solar projects, the operation can be considered a ‘green’ loan from the EIB. This is a type of financing whose characteristics fully comply with the requirements defined in the EIB program for Climate Awareness Bonds.
