Enel Green Power España, the renewable energy subsidiary of Endesa, thus fulfills the milestone of connecting to the network, before December 31, 2019, of the 339 MW of solar energy and the 540 MW of wind energy that was awarded in the second and third auction launched by the Government for the construction of renewable generation capacity.
The investment, which has materialized in 25 projects developed has exceeded 800 million euros and will allow the company to increase renewable production capacity by 2,068 GWh / year, with a reduction in CO2 emissions to the atmosphere of 1.3 million tons per year.
Endesa, through its renewable energy subsidiary, Enel Green Power España (EGPE), has successfully fulfilled the milestone of connecting to the network before December 31, 2019 the total capacity that was awarded to the company by the Government at auctions held in 2017.
Together, 879 MW have been developed through 25 projects in Aragon, Andalusia, Extremadura, Galicia, Castilla León and Murcia, with a total investment of more than 800 million euros. These parks have a production capacity of 2,068 GWh per year, which will prevent the emission of 1.3 million tons of CO2 annually into the atmosphere.
The construction of this renewable capacity responds to Endesa’s strategy to completely decarbonize its “mix” of generation in 2050, a process for which, according to its 2019-2022 Strategic Plan, the milestone of reaching 10.2 GW of renewable installed capacity in 2022, compared to the estimated 7.4 GW by the end of 2019 (which includes those 879 MW that were awarded in the 2017 auctions), with a total investment of about 3.8 billion euros.
Endesa, in the presentation of its 2019-2022 Strategic Plan, carried out on November 27, announced that 90% of its investment effort for that period (amounting to 7.7 billion euros) is aligned with objective number 13 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the fight against climate change. Only in 2019, Endesa has reduced its emissions by more than 40% with the start-up of renewable parks and the shutdown of the activity of coal-fired power plants.
José Bogas, CEO of Endesa, said that “with the fulfillment of this milestone, Endesa demonstrates with firm efforts the firm commitment to achieve emission-free production in 2050. This is another step in Endesa’s commitment by the progressive replacement of thermal production, it made 100% renewable energy, which, on the other hand, one of the pillars of the national energy transition policy ”.
EGPE was awarded 540 MW of wind power and 339 MW of solar energy at government renewable energy auctions held in 2017 and construction of the first park of this package began in September 2018, with the works of the Totana solar plant in Murcia. The last park put into operation has been the Los Arcos wind farm in Malaga, with almost 35 MW.
Beyond the construction process and the generation of employment that involves the execution of these wind and solar projects, Endesa has followed in them a development model that includes actions to create social value for the environments in which they are located: the so-called CSV (Creating Shared Value) model. These initiatives, which have meant a disbursement of more than 2.2 million euros, are of a very diverse nature and respond to the needs of each municipality, after conducting studies with local authorities.
The initiatives include training in renewable energy for people in the municipalities, advice on energy efficiency, lighting replacement projects with LED technology, self-consumption with installation of photovoltaic panels in nursing homes and other municipal facilities, local sociocultural projects , such as signaling hiking trails and bicycle touring, or heritage recovery, etc.
Sustainable construction
In the construction of these parks, sustainable engineering criteria have been followed and the “Sustainable Construction Site” model of Enel Green Power has been applied, including the installation of photovoltaic solar panels to cover part of the energy needs during the work and measures of water saving through the installation of deposits and rain collection systems. Once the work is finished, both photovoltaic panels and water saving equipment have been donated to the municipalities for public use.
Precisely two of the actions (the installation of isolated photovoltaic equipment for the electrical consumption of the camps during the construction phase which, once completed, will be donated to the local population for public use; and the use of electric vehicles in some of the Parks for the displacement of those responsible for construction) have been included as sustainable engineering actions within the Climate Projects 2018 by the Ministry for Ecological Transition (MITECO).
With the entry into production of these new 879 MW, Endesa currently manages, through EGPE, more than 7,438 MW of renewable capacity in Spain. Of this figure, 4,701 MW are of conventional hydraulic generation; and the rest, 2,737 MW, are wind (2,292 MW), solar (352 MW), mini-hydro (79 MW) and other renewable sources (14 MW).
Enel Green Power, the global renewable energy business line of the Enel Group, to which Endesa belongs, is dedicated to the development and operation of renewables worldwide, with a presence in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Enel Green Power is a global leader in the green energy sector with a managed capacity of about 46 GW in a generation combination that includes wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric, and is at the forefront of the integration of innovative technologies in power plants renewable energy.
