EIB Supports Iberdrola’s Innovation Strategy with 100 Million Euros in Financing for Green Hydrogen & Renewable Energy

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has signed a financing agreement for 100 million euros with Iberdrola, one of the world’s largest energy groups in terms of market capitalisation, to support the company’s innovation, research and development strategy between 2021 and 2023. The loan was signed today in Madrid by Iberdrola’s CEO, Ignacio Galán, and EIB Vice-President Ricardo Mourinho Félix, who is responsible for the Bank’s activity in Spain and Portugal.

The funds obtained will promote the development of innovative and sustainable technologies, aligned with the energy transition, decarbonisation and electrification of the economy. This will include R&D in renewables, the production of green hydrogen and the development of floating wind and photovoltaic installations. It will also include the integration of clean energy into the system, through pumped hydroelectric plants and batteries.

Iberdrola will also develop new solutions for customers, promoting energy efficiency and a more personalised service, as well as enhancing electric mobility. In this area, it will seek to enhance digitalisation, automation and cybersecurity.

Iberdrola’s Chairman, Ignacio Galán, highlighted the importance of innovation at Iberdrola as the agreement was signed: “R&D&I is in our company’s blood and we continue to be committed to being more innovative, more efficient and more customer-oriented. We must increase our ambition and the green revolution and innovation must be combined as key pieces in the economic recovery. We have been demonstrating this over the last two decades in a pioneering way and with agreements such as the one reached today with the European Investment Bank we will reinforce our innovation and research strategy to continue to anticipate the future, building solutions today so that we can meet the challenges of tomorrow”.

EIB Vice-President, Ricardo Mourinho Félix, responsible for the Bank’s activity in Spain and Portugal, said: “The EIB is strongly committed to supporting investment that underpins the improvement of the European economy’s competitiveness and strategic autonomy by fostering investment projects in research, development and innovation, especially those related to the energy sector, within the scope of the Bank’s Climate Action. Once again, this agreement underlines the EIB’s role as a key player in the European economy and a major financier of clean energy and climate-action-related investments”.

Iberdrola’s R&D&I strategy contributes to the development of the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) and meets the EU’s new clean energy targets. In addition to enhancing the company’s competitiveness and maximising the use of technology in value-adding activities, improving processes and the productivity of its assets and making its activities more efficient, the support from the EIB will help to combat climate change through technologies that will enable the supply of more sustainable, competitive and efficient solutions.

Iberdrola is therefore consolidating its leadership in R&D&I investment in the European and global energy sector as a key tool for ensuring its sustainability, efficiency and competitiveness and for continuing to drive the transition to a green economy. According to the report ‘The 2020 Industrial R&D Investment ScoreboardExternal link, opens in new window.’, drawn up by the European Commission, Iberdrola is once again the leading private utility company in the European Union in terms of investment in R&D&I, having allocated 280 million euros in 2019. The company plans to reach 400 million euros in this area by 2025 and, in the last decade, its investments in R&D&I have risen to 2 billion euros.

This financing responds to EIB and EU objectives focused on supporting sustainable energy and building the technological capacity of companies, demonstrating the Bank’s commitment to supporting innovative activities aimed at decarbonising the European economy.