It will develop more than 1,800 MW of wind power and photovoltaic energy for which it will allocate investments of more than 1,300 million euros.
In Velilla, it will build the largest photovoltaic complex in the region, with a power of 400 MW. Its transformation plan for the region includes investments in smart grids and sustainable mobility, circular economy projects – a waste recovery plant – and the creation of a Citizen Innovation Platform to encourage entrepreneurship.
Iberdrola accelerates its strategy to consolidate an energy model for the future, boosting its investments in renewables in Castilla y León. The company’s plans will contribute to green recovery and create opportunities for sustainable economic development in the region and the transformation of the Velilla region.
Iberdrola will promote in the community in the coming years more than 1,800 MW in renewable projects -wind farm with wind turbines and photovoltaic parks-, for which it will allocate investments of more than 1,300 million euros. This volume of resources will boost the industrial fabric and generate employment for 18,000 people, according to the estimates established in the PNIEC.
In Velilla, the company will build the largest photovoltaic complex in the region, with a total of 400 MW of installed power, which will also be one of the largest in Spain. These actions will represent an investment of 300 million euros and will create, based on the calculations used in the PNIEC, more than 4,000 jobs.
Its transformation plan in the area also includes investments in smart grids and sustainable mobility, the installation of a waste recovery plant, training programs and the creation of a Citizen Innovation Platform to encourage entrepreneurship in the region. The dismantling works of the thermal over the next four and a half years will allow collaboration with local suppliers to continue, whose involvement in these associated tasks will represent a greater volume than they currently maintain.
650 renewable MW and a current project portfolio of more than 1,100 MW
Iberdrola’s strategy for transforming the Velilla region is based on three axes: investments in 100% renewable projects, revitalization of the business fabric and local employment based on green principles and innovation and support for local entrepreneurship.
In the region, Iberdrola maintains under construction and processing more than 650 renewable MW in wind turbines and photovoltaic projects. The company has just started the execution of the Herrera wind farm complex, with the highest power wind turbines on the national market at present, and the Fuenteblanca park; and processes the Buniel and Valdemoro wind turbines projects – which make its 164 MW of power one of the largest in the company and in the country – as well as three photovoltaic plants of more than 400 MW, including a solar plant in Ciudad Rodrigo.
Additionally, Iberdrola will promote its investment plan in renewables in the region with the development of a portfolio of wind energy and photovoltaic projects, which currently amounts to more than 1,100 MW, the processing of which will begin this year for its development from 2022.
In Castilla y León, Iberdrola has led the promotion of renewables for more than 15 years, where it already operates more than 5,100 MW of wind power and hydro, making it the region with the most ‘green’ power installed by the company.
More investments and circular economy projects: waste recovery plant
To its accelerated green recovery plan, more investments will be added in the areas of renovation, improvement and digitization of the infrastructure of the company’s distribution network, in which it invests 70 million euros a year, as well as in promoting electric mobility, with the installation of electric vehicle charging points in the region and its area of ??influence.
Iberdrola will promote circular economy projects in the region, such as the installation of a waste recovery plant for the treatment and recycling of ashes, slag and gypsum, in order to transform them into new materials for the sector of the building.
Dynamization of the local industrial fabric
Electrification will become a lever for the revival of the economy and employment and will offer development opportunities for local supplier companies.
Iberdrola makes annual purchases worth 150 million euros from more than 700 Castilian-Leon companies, which allow the generation of 265 jobs per year. This collaboration has allowed progress in the configuration of a new industrial fabric, which participates in the construction of renewable projects, the deployment and maintenance of electrical networks and environmental consulting work.
Citizen innovation platform to encourage entrepreneurship in the region
Iberdrola’s transformation plan for the Velilla region contemplates the implementation of a Citizen Innovation Platform to channel entrepreneurship initiatives, in the key of innovation for the energy transition, that act as an accelerator of collaborative processes among citizens, public entities and companies. In this way, it will encourage entrepreneurs and startups who value settling in the region and will study financing options for R & D & I initiatives by local suppliers.
The company will make available to the community a team made up of academics from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, grouped into the EIT Climate-KIC, a knowledge and innovation network, dependent on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, dedicated to accelerating the transition to a decarbonised economy.
Initiatives in this area also include the promotion of educational and informative programs, aimed at both Dual Vocational Training and institutes and universities in the region, with the aim of improving employability.
Through different formulas – agreements with local institutions, the ‘Iberdrola U’ program for young entrepreneurship and training activities at the Iberdrola Campus in smart solutions related to electric mobility, self-consumption and air conditioning – the company will promote the employability of young people and local professionals with the aim of turning them into active actors in the energy transition.
Bet on clean, sustainable and competitive technologies
At the end of 2017, Iberdrola requested the authorization to close its last thermal power plants in the world, located in Velilla (Palencia) and Lada (Asturias), in response to its decision to replace CO2-emitting installations with state-of-the-art clean energy and lead thus the energy transition towards a new sustainable energy model. The company aims to have virtually zero emissions intensity in Europe by 2030 and aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 globally. Since 2001, Iberdrola has closed 15 coal and fuel oil thermal plants in the world, totaling almost 8,500 MW.
This commitment to green renovation has led him to commit record investments this year of 10,000 million euros in renewable energy, smart grids and large-scale storage systems, after having allocated 25,000 million euros since 2001 in Spain, which they rise to 100,000 million in the world, which have allowed the generation of 80,000 * jobs in the country.
Iberdrola is the leader in renewable energy in Spain, with an installed wind capacity of more than 6,000 MW and more than 16,500 renewable MW; a volume that in the world rises to more than 32,000 MW, which make its generation park one of the cleanest in the energy sector.
