Renewables heavyweight Iberdrola will stick to its investment strategy to build 9GW of new capacity over the coming years and is accelerating €3.8bn in procurement orders to support the supply chain during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Spanish utility will shell out €10bn in 2020 as part of its multi-year spending programme that will see 4.5GW of new projects, which are currently in construction, delivered by the year-end, said chairman Ignacio Galan (pictured) in a bullish update at the company’s AGM.
Some 30 solar projects, 50 onshore wind farms and a slew of offshore projects like Saint-Brieuc in France and Baltic Eagle in Germany are part of a further pipeline of 4.5GW that is advancing in the face of the public health crisis, he said.
Galan laid out an ambitious procurement plan to give visibility to the entire supply chain that will, he hopes, promote economic activity and jobs during the pandemic.
“In the last few days we’ve brought forward over €3.8 billion in orders to thousands of suppliers, with purchases in progress for delivery by 2023 standing at more than €20 billion,” he said.
“We will move forward with the total conviction that we will come through this situation and that this new infrastructure will be absolutely necessary.
“To this end, having taken on 3,500 new employees in 2019, we expect to reach the record figure of 5,000 new recruits in 2020. This will bring our global workforce to more than 40,000.”
The company is maintaining a prediction that full-year guidance may see net profit outstrip 2019’s €3.4bn return.
Galan meanwhile said some 107 measures have been implemented by the group worldwide during this COVID-19 crisis.
More than 90% of office staff are working from home personnel at power stations and transmission and distribution networks have had arrangements “reorganised”.
“This integrated plan is allowing us to secure the continuity of electricity supply to the whole population while bolstering particularly sensitive infrastructure such as hospitals and healthcare centres with human and technical resources,” Galan added.