Energy company Iberdrola, founded in the Basque Country and still headquartered in Bilbao, has announced an ambitious investment plan worth €75 billion for the 2020-2025 period. Of this huge investment, 90%, or €68 billion, will be aimed at consolidating its business model, focusing on renewable energies, as well as increasing its networks and storage capacity. The rest will be used to purchase the US electricity firm PNM Resources.
It goes without saying this caused quite an international uproar. After all, this company, the third largest in its sector in the world, with 34,000 employees all over the world, providing service to more than 31 million customers, has become a world leader in renewables.
Reading this news, once again, got us thinking about the the global reach companies founded in the Basque Country have.
We are aware of the enormous absorption power that “black hole” called Madrid has over anything that might be in any way interesting. It’s like a vacuum cleaner, sucking up everything withe blessing of Spanish authorities who then wonder, worriedly, what can be done to solve the enormous problem of “Empty Spain“.
Ibedrola is not immune to the incredible drawing power of that central city that wishes to engulf the whole country, or at least anything that can be profitable or influential. The fact that many decision-making centers, technical centers, or indeed the Iberdrola Campus in Guadix de la Sierra have all moved to Madrid province says quite a lot about the magnetic power of the home of the Kings of Spain. Don’t get us started on BBVA.
But for now, at least, the headquarters of Iberdrola are in Bilbao, and as much as many would wish to ignore it, this company’s origins are Basque. It would be nice if this were remembered more often, and more emphatically.
We’re sure it sounds a bit provincial, but if it is, then it also applies to Coca-Cola, a global company with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, which never tires of stating where it still calls home.
It’s also true that in this general situation, in which Iberdrola is a key part, really, it is we Basques who are responsible, as we have lost an important part of the industrial portfolio of our Basque banks, and our EPSVs spend more time buying debt from Spain than in investing more resources in strategic Basque companies. All these decisions are usually political in nature.
We’re bringing all this up because in the report we’re leaving you with regarding this huge investment plan, there is no mention of the origins of this company. Only one article, written by Scotsman Mark McSherry in the European Financial Review, an economic news website based in New York, mentioned it. All the rest omitted this fundamental detail.
That being said, this investment is going to have extraordinary importance in the push towards renewable energies, not only because of Ibedrola’s own actions, but also because this movement is surely going to have an important knock-on effect on other companies in the sector. It will also be noticed in our country, both generally and through important specific actions. One of them, the Global Smartgrid Innovation Hub, thanks to its strategic importance, is going to get a special article here on the blog.
We’ll leave you with some of the reports we’ve found covering this huge news.
European Financial Review – 6/11/2020 – USA
Iberdrola plans to invest €75bn in renewable energy
Basque wind energy giant Iberdrola has revealed that it plans to invest €75 billion in its renewable energy production, grids and retail operations by 2025 to capitalise on growing global demand for clean power. Iberdrola said its investment programme for the next six years, the largest ever by a Spanish company, “will contribute to boosting the industrial fabric and job creation in the countries where the group operates.”
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Wall Street Journal – 6/11/2020 USA
Green-Power Giant Capitalizes on Energy Transition With $88 Billion Investment
Spain’s Iberdrola SA said it would spend €75 billion,equivalent to $88 billion, over the next five years to double its renewable power capacity and capitalize on the shift to green energy, highlighting how some of Europe’s lesser-known utility companies have become major players in the global energy industry.
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Financial Times – 6/11/2020- Gran Bretaña
Iberdrola pledges €75bn to capitalise on energy transition
Iberdrola, the world’s third-biggest utility, has promised to invest €75bn over the next five years to double its renewable energy capacity and help it capitalise on the global move away from fossil fuels. The commitment by the Spanish group enlarges its previous plans to invest around €10bn in 2020 and succeeding years.
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Reuters – 6/11/2020 – Canadá
Iberdrola to invest $88 billion in ‘energy revolution’ by 2025
Spanish wind energy group Iberdrola IBE.MC plans to invest 75 billion euros ($88 billion) in its renewable energy production, grids and retail operations by 2025 to capitalise on growing global demand for clean power, it said on Thursday.
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Last Updated on Dec 20, 2020 by About Basque Country
