Iberdrola will invest up to 41,000 million euros between 2024 and 2026, according to the update data of its strategic plan presented this morning at the Capital Markets Day held in London. The company plans to distribute around 11,000 million euros in dividends to shareholders in this period, which will allow it to achieve a remuneration of between 0.61 and 0.66 euros per share in 2026, 30% more than expected in the previous year. plan, which provided for a dividend of 0.5 euros per share.
This increase in investment effort will allow the energy company to achieve a net profit in the period of between 5,600 and 5,800 million euros compared to the range foreseen in the previous plan of 5,200 and 5,400 million for the period 2023-2025. The gross operating result (Ebitda) will be between 16,500-17,000 million euros in 2026, with the network and renewable businesses contributing around 50% each.
The company’s activities will create 10,000 jobs globally over the next three years, increasing to 500,000 jobs across our supply chain.
The main recipient of these investments will be the US, which will account for 35% of this spending, followed by the United Kingdom, with 24%. The next market that this effort will reach is the Iberian, Spain and Portugal, with 15%, the same amount as Latin America (15%).
In terms of business lines, the expansion and updating of energy networks globally will account for the bulk of the investments with 60% of the net figure, around 21.5 billion euros, dedicated mainly to expanding and strengthening networks in the United States. ., United Kingdom, Brazil and Spain.
“Electrification is unstoppable, no sector that has made the transition to electricity has returned to fossil fuels,” said Iberdrola’s executive president, Ignacio Sánchez Galán. “There is an urgent need to multiply investments in networks, the effort must be doubled globally in six years, regardless of energy policies,” said the senior executive.
The development of renewable energy projects will receive around 15.5 billion euros in investment. Of this investment figure, the company’s partners in renewables, such as the Norwegian sovereign fund Norges or Masdar, will contribute 5,000 million euros. In this way, Iberdrola’s net investment will be 36,000 million euros in total in the period. This amount includes the purchase of 18.4% of Avangrid for approximately 2,280 million euros to acquire 100% of its US subsidiary.
Offshore wind energy projects will account for more than half of the investment, plans that are already in different stages of development in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany. The president assured that his offshore wind projects will contribute “about 1,000 million euros” to the EBITDA for the period. 28% of the investment will be for onshore wind and 18% for solar. 100% of the projects to which the expense is dedicated are already under construction. With this, as of 2027, the company will already have 3,000 new megawatts (MW) of offshore wind operational, thus reaching 5,000 offshore MW and plans to launch 6,000 MW of wind and solar
The energy company will also promote its commitment to storage as a strategic technology to stabilize prices in the market and avoid volatility in margins, thus allocating 1.5 billion euros with the objective of reaching 120 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of capacity storage through pumping, which represents an increase of 20%. In addition, the group will have a portfolio of 150 million kWh.
Regarding the customer business, it will allocate 2,500 million euros, having between 70% and 80% of the energy sold from long-term customers, mainly PPAs and regulated generation.
