Iberdrola has reported continued growth of its net profit to €3.61 billion (£3.12 billion) in a year that saw over 90% of its investments injected into renewables and networks.
In its 2020 full year results, the energy giant – which owns UK supplier ScottishPower – outlined how its net profit jumped 4.7% from 2019, adding that this would in fact be a 10% rise if it had not been for the impact of COVID-19.
This follows Iberdrola also recording an increase in 2019 of 13%, which it largely attributed to strong renewables performance.
Whilst COVID-19 may have impacted on the company’s profits, 2020 did see Iberdrola ramp up all of its activities, achieving record investments of €9.24 billion (£7.98 billion), up 13% from the previous year. Of this, 91% was allocated to the development of new renewables projects and electricity networks.
The company installed 4,000MW over the year, with almost 3,000MW of this being green projects. This brings its total to 35,000MW of installed renewables capacity.
It has over 17.4GW of green projects under construction and development, of which 8.7GW correspond to new solar facilities, 4.5GW to onshore wind, 2.6GW to offshore wind, 1.2GW to hydroelectric and 400MW to batteries.
Iberdrola outlined how good performance in all areas of the business resulted in underlying EBITDA of €10.71 billion, a rise of 8%, although this excludes an impact of €218 million (£188 million) from COVID-19 and the exchange rate effect, which was €487 million (£421 million).
Regulated areas – networks and renewables – contributed 75% of EBITDA, with 76% coming from countries with an A rating. Iberdrola specifically cited offshore wind, which contributed €585 million (£505 million).
Ignacio Galán, chairman of Iberdrola, said: “Our balance sheet is supporting economic recovery, with record investments of more than €9.2 billion and €14 billion awarded to over 22,000 suppliers, the largest in our history, to support 400,000 jobs in our markets”.
“In this decade, we plan to invest €150 billion to triple our renewable capacity and double our network assets.”
