New solar auction has already started. Iberdrola wants to be the winner again

To combat the global crisis and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, Spanish electricity company Iberdrola decided to increase investments and maintain its hiring plan: 5,000 more people in 2020 alone. In the first three months of the year, the company invested 1,729 million euros globally (24% more than in 2019). Of this figure, 47% was for renewables: 810.2 million euros.

In Portugal, investments are planned for the long term (1500 million euros to give birth to three new dams in Alto Tâmega by 2023) and are also increasing, Iberdrola’s general director in Portugal, Carla Costa, assured in an interview with ECO. “To overcome this crisis, it is necessary to invest. Without investment, there is no growth and without growth, there is no employment. This is the direction we’re heading in,” she said. After the first solar energy auction in Portugal, it won seven of the 22 available lots, Iberdrola wants to repeat the same achievement in 2020. The next auction is already scheduled for August 24 and 25, but the bidding phase starts this Monday, June 8, and ends on July 31.

“Of the big players, Iberdrola was the main winner of the 2019 auction. Other smaller players also won several lots. Iberdrola’s goal was to win. Now is the right time to invest heavily in solar and that is what we are doing. It’s one of the company’s big investments and we’re already working hard for the new auction”, guarantees Carla Costa, who warns of the risk of repeating the “too low” prices for electricity registered last year: 20.33 euros/MWh, on average, with one of the lots reaching 14.63 euros per MWh.

“The solar auction business is good, but it has limits. Especially in the last lot, the prices were too low. There were very negative figures. This is a business, and although the risk is big, there’s a red line that can’t be crossed and all the serious companies, that are here to stay, know that. At the current energy figures, it was too low. It was so good, so good, it was a record,” says the CEO. At last year’s auction, Iberdrola bought almost 150 MW, of the over 1000 MW available, thus achieving the solar capacity to more than double its operational renewable power in the country.

“There are three large areas: Setúbal, south of the Tagus; Alentejo and Algarve. We are now in the development phase of the projects more advanced than one can imagine. We are building a team in Portugal only dedicated to auctions, which will grow and grow well by the end of the year. I think we will be able to meet the deadlines. As for the new 2020 auction, the rules are out, the lots are already known and we have the whole team looking for land in the substations that are now being auctioned,” reveals Carla Costa.

In addition to dams and solar power, Iberdrola is also investing in onshore wind energy in the Iberian Peninsula, but especially offshore wind energy in the northern seas of Europe. In January, visiting Portugal, the president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, announced an investment of 200 million euros in “new wind projects” in the country, in addition to the 1,500 million already invested to build three new dams in Alto Tâmega. Hydrogen is also in the company’s sights, but Iberdrola has yet to make a statement about this. New developments are planned for the near future.

“The world is changing. Iberdrola is always attentive to all new renewable trends, including hydrogen, as the company’s president has already said. But every technology has its time. Whatever is a successful investment, we will invest. It is still too early to talk about details in hydrogen because it is being studied and awaiting results. Iberdrola is a big company, it invests in the whole world and when it has an investment in Portugal we are super happy,” said Carla Costa.

Before the Prime Minister, António Costa, Ignacio Galán assured: “You can be sure that we will continue to drive the energy transition in this country and with it the creation of wealth, employment and well-being for all Portuguese.”