Spanish power utility Iberdrola SA plans to invest between EUR 3 billion and EUR 4 billion over the next four years to grow its renewables business in France and is interested in showing up in the future offshore wind auctions in the country.
The plans were announced by Iberdrola CEO Ignacio Galan at the latest edition of the Choose France summit, an event organised by the French government to encourage foreign investment. The teleconferenced discussions on Tuesday, hosted by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and attended by international business leaders, were held around the topic of the need to drive investments in green recovery.
In his speech, Galan said that France is a strategic country for Iberdrola. The Spanish company plans to direct its investment in solar and onshore and offshore wind power projects.
“The company is very interested in participating in the new offshore wind capacity auctions to be held in the future by France,” said the CEO.
Iberdrola is already putting in EUR 2.4 billion to build the 496-MW Saint-Brieuc offshore wind farm and has several onshore wind projects in operation and some under development.
While Galan had favourable opinion on France's multi-annual energy programme, he added that "clear and attractive regulation is needed, as well as speeding up the permitting process" in order to boost the process of decarbonising the economy through electrification.
