The chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, has addressed the more than 600,000 shareholders of the company in what was the first 100% remote AGM in its history. During his address from the Iberdrola Tower in Bilbao, he appealed for responsibility and collaboration in mitigating the effects of the crisis brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
During his address, Ignacio Galán announced that, in view of the current situation, “as soon as possible the company will speed up our investments in order to contribute to economic activity and prevent people's jobs from being lost. Therefore, in 2020, it is our intention to surpass last year's investment record and reach €10billion.”
As a result of this effort, at least half of the 9,000MW of new capacity currently under construction will be commissioned this year. Specifically, across the world Iberdrola is advancing on 30 photovoltaic solar plants, 50 onshore windfarms, new offshore wind farms such as Saint Brieuc in France, Baltic Eagle in Germany and Vineyard in the U.S.; the Tâmega pumped storage hydroelectric giga battery in Portugal, more than 5,000 kilometres of high voltage transmission lines in Brazil and new distribution networks in the states of New York, Maine and Connecticut.
Together with the new investments, Ignacio Galán announced an ambitious procurement plan which will give visibility to the entire supply chain while promoting economic activity and jobs: “In the last few days we've brought forward over €3.8 billion in orders to thousands of suppliers, with purchases in progress for delivery by 2023 standing at more than €20 billion.
