Qatar has strong focus on clean energy technologies: Iberdrola chairman

Qatar has sturdy sources for photo voltaic power and Qatar Nationwide Imaginative and prescient 2030 offers “encouragement” with targets to extend renewable power within the era combine, mentioned Ignacio Galán, chairman and CEO of Iberdrola, world’s high producer of wind energy, and one of many greatest international electrical energy utilities.
“And now inexperienced hydrogen can also be a significant alternative going ahead. We imagine that clear power applied sciences have a job to play in each nation and Qatar is displaying that it desires to maintain growing its renewable capability,” Galán mentioned in an unique interview with Gulf Occasions.

Iberdrola is a world chief in renewable power, but in addition invests closely in energy networks and power storage, he mentioned. This, he famous is as a result of sustainable built-in power programs require these three constructing blocks.
“We’ve got invested $130bn globally in these three areas over the past twenty years and this has led us to change into the most important utility in Europe and one of many 4 largest worldwide. On this journey, the assist of our largest shareholder – Qatar Funding Authority – and its management crew has been completely important from HE Ahmad al-Sayed, who was CEO again in 2011, to his successor, Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani, and naturally, to Mansoor bin Ebrahim al-Mahmoud,” Galán informed Gulf Occasions.
Following this international method, he mentioned: “We spend money on completely different international locations in accordance with their sources and power coverage. In Qatar, we began our actions nearly 20 years in the past within the fuel enterprise, and in 2010 we constructed for Kahramaa the Mesaieed energy plant, one of many largest within the nation on the time.
“We’ve got additionally collaborated extensively with Kahramaa within the networks enterprise, and in 2018 we opened Iberdrola Innovation Center East Analysis and Innovation Centre at Qatar’s Science and Know-how Park. Lower than two months in the past, we signed an settlement with HE the Minister of Commerce and Trade to broaden this centre on the event of the go to of His Highness the Amir to Madrid.”
Galán famous that this centre is the “cornerstone” of Iberdrola’s innovation globally.
“At our centre in Al Rayyan, along with Qatari establishments, we’re creating new concepts for wind and photo voltaic power, good grids and digital buyer options that we use globally. I’m certain that a lot of them might be helpful for Qatar, given the management taken by the nation with Qatar’s Nationwide imaginative and prescient 2030.”
On what it meant for an organization to be a world chief on the subject of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG), Galán mentioned: “Our ESG technique has unanimous assist from our shareholders. Practically three-quarters of our capital participated at our 2022 Annual Shareholders Assembly in June, and an amazing 99.93% of these registered a constructive vote in relation to our governance and sustainability administration.”
He famous: “The rationale for that is that ESG elements are an integral a part of Iberdrola’s technique. In truth, we had a transparent give attention to environmental, social and governance elements lengthy earlier than this idea was created. We at Iberdrola imagine in social market financial system, within the function that every one social brokers -and in fact companies- should contribute to progress in our societies. In truth, we created the idea of “social dividend” a few years in the past and included it in our bylaws with the identical significance as monetary dividend, and we ship and report on it annually. Our purchases, our job creation, our tax contribution, our emissions discount… all these elements are a part of our social dividend.”
Now that the give attention to ESG has change into so universally unfold, Galán pressured “we want to verify we’ve high quality and homogeneous reporting requirements throughout all industries. To be severe about ESG ideas, firms want be very clear and clear on their targets and to report on their supply.
“In all my 21 years main Iberdrola we’ve produced detailed and strong experiences on our ESG efficiency. We’ve got analysed the info to see the place enhancements might be made, after which we’ve delivered these enhancements. We are actually broadly recognised for our ESG efficiency by a bunch of exterior indices and analysts.”