Climate + social commitment = a leading company for the 21st century ??

Hello everyone! ?? We’re back with exciting updates from the past few days. Last week, the 2024 Climate Week was held in New York, where Iberdrola’s executive chairman, Ignacio Galán , attended to meet with policymakers and leaders to help keep the energy transition moving forward.

He participated in TIME’s Climate Leadership Forum alongside executives from the world’s most committed companies in the fight against climate change and took part in a roundtable with Jennifer Granholm, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, and Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.

“Renewable energies are now more competitive than fossil fuels. If we compare new fossil fuel plants with new renewable energy plants, the required investment is lower.”

“Things are moving in the world, perhaps not at the speed we all like, but they are moving. We need to generate greater demand for electrification by changing many uses that currently rely on fossil energy.”

In the opinion of a sector pioneer like Galán, electrification with renewables has positive implications beyond environmental benefits. Decarbonization can be a mechanism to boost energy self-sufficiency, reindustrialization, and competitiveness.

Growing strongly in the USA ????

Staying in the US, we have news about significant advances in Iberdrola’s acquisition of Avangrid. The shareholders approved Iberdrola’s acquisition of 18.4% of Avangrid’s capital, through a merger operation. The transaction received overwhelming support from the company’s shareholders. Both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Maine Public Utilities Commission (subject to a final written order) have approved the merger, which is expected to close before the end of the year. The transaction now only requires the approval of the New York Public Service Commission.

The transaction will allow Iberdrola’s strong growth to continue in the United States, where it has been present for more than 20 years ??. Avangrid has assets of 46 billion dollars. The company distributes electricity to a population of 7 million people in the states of New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts and has an installed capacity of 8,700 MW of renewable energy across 24 states ??. Ignacio Galán is clear:

"The operation is fully aligned with our strategy of investing in networks in countries with high credit ratings, such as the United States. Avangrid will have all the necessary resources to continue growing in transmission and distribution grid networks, and also in renewable technologies, such as offshore wind.”

We also wanted to take this opportunity to thank our incredible colleagues at Avangrid for their great work after Hurricane Helene, deploying 73 teams to support the recovery of the electricity supply in Virginia and North Carolina. The Category 4 hurricane had left millions of people without power in the area.

Renewables Around the World ??: France

A huge achievement in France, as we continue at the forefront of the global energy transition. We have officially inaugurated the Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm ??, which saw investment of €2.4 billion.

? With a power capacity of 496 megawatts, it is the country’s second offshore project and will supply clean energy to nearly 1 million people.

? It consists of 62 wind turbines of 8 MW each off the coast of Brittany.

? More than 150 European companies have contributed to making it a reality, 60 of which are Spanish, including Navantia Seanergies, Windar Renovables, and Siemens Gamesa.

? Our fourth fully operational installation of this type in the world ??, following West of Duddon Sands and East Anglia One in the UK and Wikinger in Germany.

A great engineering challenge over 12 years of development and 3 years of construction.

Bye Bye Coal in the UK ?

The UK has closed the doors on its final coal-fired power station - closing the chapter on an era that powered the Industrial Revolution & fueled the nation’s growth.

???? In the 70's Longannet Power Station, one of the largest coal-fired plants in Europe, could generate enough electricity to power 2 million homes.

???? In 2016, ScottishPower made coal history when its closure marked our commitment to leading the green energy revolution.

???? By 2018, they became the UK’s first integrated energy company to go 100% green.

Today, with over 40 operational wind farms, including offshore projects, ScottishPower has a clean energy capacity of around 3 GW - powering more than 2 million homes.

A Mystery Over 100 Years Old in Scotland ??

An unresolved mystery for over 100 years… ?? Our colleagues at ScottishPower were working on studies in the North Sea for what would be one of the world’s first floating offshore wind farms: Marram Wind.

In this work they discovered the possible location of the remains of a ship that sank in 1917, the SS Tobol, a Russian merchant ship that was torpedoed by a German submarine during World War I. Could this over 100-year-old mystery be solved? We will be keeping an eye out to find out! ??

That's it for today ??. As always, you can follow us on other social networks like X , TikTok , Pinterest or Youtube. Thank you very much for reading us ??