The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Iberdrola have signed a €550 million (US$562 million) green loan to boost solar PV and wind projects in Spain.
The green loan provided to the utility will finance the construction of a 1.8GW portfolio of onshore renewables projects located across several Spanish municipalities, mainly in rural areas such as Extremadura or Castille and Leon.
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Part of the funding will go to the 200MW Tagus and 80MW Almaraz solar PV plants in Extremadura.
Moreover, the projects will create around 2,100 jobs per year during the construction phase and will “help strengthen” renewable energy in Europe and improve security of supply of electricity, according to the EIB.
The European bank continues ramping up its investments in renewables this year as it provided a US$221 million loan to Neoenergia’s 715.5MW renewables pipeline project in Brazil last March and a €100 million financing deal to speed up deployment of 430MW of solar PV and wind in Spain and Portugal earlier this year.
Furthermore, it will bring closer the EU’s target of 32% of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption by 2030 as well as Spain’s own renewable target of 42% by 2030, according to the EU bank.
“This financing agreement, which further strengthens our partnership with the EIB, gives a new boost to our projects in Spain at an important time when we need to accelerate the energy transition and reduce dependence on fossil fuels,” said Ignacio Galán, CEO of Iberdrola.
This new agreement will further boost the Spanish utility’s development pipeline in Spain, after securing a 590MW power purchase agreement (PPA) with PepsiCo earlier this month and after investing €2.38 billion in 2021 in Spain alone.
Iberdrola has also made a big push into green hydrogen with a €3 billion investment in May, as Galán said the technology will be set to bring enormous industrial opportunities to energy uses in hard to abate industries.
Ricardo Mourinho Félix, Vice-President at EIB, said: “The new green loan signed with Iberdrola enables us to step up our contribution to making Spain a country with greater renewable capacity, a key factor in helping Europe achieve its climate targets.”
