Spanish utility Iberdrola has added 500MW of solar PV in the third quarter of 2023, most of which in Spain.
In the first nine months of its financial results, the company registered a net profit of €3.6 billion (US$3.8 billion) at the end of Q3 2023, up 17.2% from the same period last year. The utility raised its net profit outlook to double-digit growth
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Earnings before inflation, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were up 13% from the previous period last year, from €9.5 billion in the first nine months of 2022 to €10.8 billion in the first nine months of 2023, due to positive tariff adjustments in the networks business and improvement in renewable output and margins in the EU.
Total installed renewable capacity went up from 39.1GW in Q3 2022 to 41.3 in Q3 2023, for which solar PV grew the most of all renewables, a 45.6% increase year-on-year (YOY).
Even though onshore wind and hydropower account for more than half of the current installed capacity, solar PV has had the biggest growth YOY and now represents 5.4GW of all renewable capacity for the utility.
Most of the company’s installed solar capacity comes from its home country of Spain with 3.5GW at the end of Q3 2023 and up 54.4% from Q2 2022, including the construction of its first hybrid solar-wind project in the northern province of Burgos and a 74MW solar PV capacity that was completed in September this year. The utility aims to continue investing in more hybrid projects in Spain in the future.
In the last twelve months since Q3 2022, the utility installed 2.7GW of renewable energy and has 4.4GW of renewable projects under construction. Overall the company has contracted most of its capacity planned through 2025, with a quarter from contracts for difference (CfDs) while the remaining 75% from power purchase agreements.
This year also marked Iberdrola’s partnership with Spanish PV module manufacturer Exiom to build a module assembly plant in Spain with a 500MW annual nameplate capacity which recently received its first machinery shipment. Located in the northeast province of Asturias, the plant will be producing tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) modules.