Spanish multinational electric utility Iberdrola, the world’s third biggest and owner of Scottish Power, will invest €75bn over the next five years to increase its renewable energy capacity as it moves away from fossil fuels.

Making the announcement during Capital Markets Day, chairman Ignacio Galán clarified that 90 per cent of the investment was earmarked for organic growth rather than from acquisition. More than half of the organic growth (51 per cent) will go to renewables and 40 per cent to networks.

Renewables capacity should rise from 32GW to 60 GW by 2025, mainly through onshore wind as part of the companies drive to become a ‘new energy major’ alongside such companies as Enel and Ørsted and transitioning companies such as Shell and BP and potential newer localised agile energy companies such as Octopus that could disrupt the tradition supply systems.

By 2025, onshore wind will account for 26GW, offshore 4GW, solar 16GW and hydroelectric, both traditional as well as storage 14 GW. Hydrogen will also play its part, with 600MW in operation in 2025, 800 MW by 2027.

The company has also pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030 in Europe and to reduce its CO2 emissions globally by 86 per cent by the end of the decade. As an additional contribution, the company will plant 20 million trees by 2030 and 8 million by 2025.

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