EDP will focus on North America to ramp up its solar capacity in the next five years as part of a new strategic update that will see the Portuguese utility target more than 50GW of renewables additions by 2030.
The company will invest €24 billion (US$29.1 billion) by 2025, of which 80% will be on renewables, with a commitment to deploy 4GW of clean energy per year and double solar and wind capacity from 12GW to 25GW.
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EDP will also step-up investment in the digital transformation of the business and innovation to provide new solutions in hydrogen, storage, smart grids, energy communities and e-mobility.
The utility said the strategy will pave the way for it to be coal-free by 2025 and carbon-neutral by 2030.
“This plan is a bold and ambitious commitment and an unprecedented acceleration of growth in renewables building on our strong track record. The global challenge presented by climate change requires a different mindset, ambition and, above all, measurable action,” said EDP CEO Miguel Stilwell d’Andrade.
In terms of PV additions, the company aims to grow its global presence tenfold between 2021 and 2025, with approximately 9.3GW of new capacity. At 5.5GW, the majority is set to be in North America, where the utility’s EDP Renewables unit recently entered the distributed solar space through the acquisition of a majority interest in C2 Omega. The strategic update says EDP will aim to develop a “distinctive approach” to commercial and industrial solar through a dedicated distributed platform in the US.
In Europe, around 2.4GW of solar capacity additions are forecasted for the next five years, with a focus on markets such as Portugal, Poland, Romania as well as Spain, where the company secured 98MW of PV capacity in the country’s renewables auction last month. Elsewhere, 700MW of PV is expected to be added to the company’s portfolio in Latin America, with a further 700MW in other markets globally.
Distributed solar deal in Brazil
In a separate announcement, EDP’s Brazilian subsidiary said it has secured a deal to acquire distributed solar assets in Brazil from a local unit of AES Corporation for BRL177 million (US$32 million).
The deal involves AES Inova, a distributed solar investment platform that holds a portfolio of approximately 34MWp assets in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, São Paulo and Minas Gerais, with projects at varying stages of development.
EDP Brazil said the transaction sees it “reinforce its commitment” to invest in distributed PV, expanding its portfolio of projects by around 50% and keeping the segment as an “important growth path”.
