Norges Bank Investment Management, a fund manager for the Norwegian Norges Bank, signed an agreement last January with Iberdrola to acquire a 49% stake in a portfolio of solar plants and onshore wind farms located in Spain and Portugal. The company has agreed to pay 307 million euros for the transaction, which values the Spanish energy company's portfolio at around 627 million euros.

Iberdrola will retain the remaining 51% stake and will be responsible for operating the assets. Four plants in fact are currently under development and are expected to be completed between 2025 and 2026. Norges Bank Investment Management will take possession of them when they become operational.

2,600 megawatts on the horizon
Two of the projects are solar plants, representing 60% of the portfolio, and the other two are onshore wind projects. Between them, they will have an installed capacity of 674 megawatts peak, equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 350,000 Spanish households.

Iberdrola has taken the announcement further, saying that the new agreement with Norges Bank will reach 1,300 megawatts of peak capacity in the coming months, which will take them to 2,600 megawatts peak. To achieve this milestone, the two companies will jointly invest more than 2 billion euros over the next three years between Spain and Portugal.

Prior agreement
Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages the investments of Norway's sovereign wealth fund, signed a similar agreement with the Spanish utility just a year earlier, on 16 January 2023, whereby the former paid 600 million euros for 49% of the latter's portfolio of solar plants and onshore wind farms in Spain, with a total capacity of 1,300 megawatts peak.

The CEO of the Nordic organisation, Nicolai Tangen, said, “We are very pleased to announce this important new agreement with our great partner Iberdrola. This will expand our presence in Spain and is also our first step into Portugal. We look forward to adding more attractive renewable infrastructure projects to our portfolio in the future.”

During his visit to the Davos forum, where he met with Tangen, the Executive Chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, explained, “Today we are signing a global partnership agreement to further advance the development of renewables in the Iberian Peninsula in a faster, more consolidated and competitive way. We believe that agreements of this kind will allow us to combine our clean energy expertise and financial strength with those of Norges Bank Investment Management, a leading partner with whom we have already been working for several years.”

^{Photo: Norges Bank}