- IFC has committed €170 million of the agreed amount to Iberdrola to finance onshore wind projects in Poland.
- The latest funding aims to promote energy transition in emerging markets such as Morocco, Vietnam and Poland.
The World Bank’s private sector investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has granted Iberdrola, a Spanish utility firm, €300 million (US$328.7 million) to develop renewable energy projects in countries dependent on coal, including Morocco, Vietnam and Poland. The firm notes that of the agreed amount, the IFC has committed €170 million to finance onshore wind projects in Poland. The loan is subject to fulfilling two environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) objectives for Iberdrola.
The first ESG objective is that the firm needs to reduce its absolute direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by more than 60 per cent by 2030 from the 2020 baseline across all three scopes of emissions. The second objective is to double Iberdrola’s installed renewables capacity by 2030. As of the end of the third quarter of 2023, Iberdrola’s installed capacity reached 41.3GW. According to its financial result announcement for the third quarter of 2023, solar PV represented 5.4GW of all renewables capacity for the utility. This is despite onshore wind and hydropower accounting for over half of the current installed capacity.
The latest funding is part of an agreement signed in May 2023 to promote the energy transition in emerging markets. In addition, IFC planned to provide the company with a loan of €138 million to finance digitalisation and energy efficiency improvements in the electricity distribution networks operated by Iberdrola’s subsidiary in Brazil, Neoenergia. Iberdrola and the IFC are also considering supporting offshore wind and green hydrogen projects in additional emerging markets. The vice president for Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean at IFC, Alfonso García Mora, said the latest loan can support Iberdrola’s expansion and re-entry into emerging markets needing to decarbonise their energy matrix.