Spanish utility Iberdrola has secured grid access for a 100MW solar PV plant in the Basque country, Spain.
The Ekienea project is a private-public collaboration between local utility the Basque Energy Agency (EVE), the regional council of Alava and the Mondragon Group, a Basque cooperative of companies.
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Announced in 2020, the project required an investment of €70 million (US$78 million) and is the largest solar farm in the northern Spanish region. When presented four years ago, the project was expected to be up and running in 2023.
It is built near the Ekian 24MW solar PV plant that has been operational since 2020. The Ekienea project extends over 200 hectares, although only half of the space will be occupied by the solar PV plant, with the other half used for environmental compensation and the preservation of forest areas.
With the near powering of its Ekienea solar PV plant in the Basque country, the Spanish utility continues to expand its solar portfolio in its home country. Iberdrola has over 4GW of installed PV in Spain, which nearly doubled in the last twelve months up to March 2024.
At the beginning of the year the Spanish utility inked a financing partnership with the sovereign wealth fund of Norway to develop 1.3GW of renewables in Spain and Portugal. This is on top of Iberdrola’s new plan to invest €15.5 billion (US$17.2 billion) in renewables by 2026 and commission 6GW of solar PV and onshore wind by 2027.
As the company continues to increase its installed capacity, it also keeps securing power purchase agreements (PPAs) for several of its solar PV plants across Spain, including deals with fast food chain Burger King and Spanish retailer Alcampo.
Moreover, in the US the utility fully acquired its subsidiary, Avangrid, in May this year for a total of €2.3 billion (US$2.5 billion). Iberdrola acquired the 18.4% minority stake that it did not already hold in Avangrid for €32.36 (US$35.75) per share, according to its filing with the Spanish National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
