Iberdrola, a Spanish power developer has signed a long-term power purchase agreement with Danone, a French food company. As per the ten-year agreement, Iberdrola will supply of 73 GWh of power annually from the Francisco Pizarro plant. With this agreement, the entirety of the renewable electricity used in Danone’s plants and factories in Spain will come from this solar project.
This agreement is expected to drive the development of the 590MW Francisco Pizarro project, valued at 300 million Euros. The project would be Europe’s largest solar photovoltaic plant and will be located in the municipalities of Torrecillas de la Tiesa and Aldeacentenera, Cáceres, Extremadura. The project is set to become operational in 2022 and will offset 245,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Signing of this agreement will ensure the long-term green supply of renewable power to all of Danone‘s Spanish production plants and its natural water sources, located in Asturias, Barcelona, Gerona, Guadalajara, Granada, Madrid and Valencia; as well as its logistics centres and offices. 29 of Danone’s supply points in Spain will be powered starting from April 2022. Danone plans to sign another annual energy contract with Iberdrola to cover its total consumption of 104GWh per year. The initiative strengthens Danone’s progress towards its net-zero emissions commitment for 2050.
In 2020, Iberdrola announced plans to invest Euro 75 billion towards energy transition by 2025. More than Euro 7 billion will be allocated to renewables and over Euro 4.5 billion to networks. 83 per cent of the investment is targeted at countries with an A rating. Almost half of the investment, amounting to about Euro 34 billion, is to be directed towards the United States and the United Kingdom. The company plans an average investment of 10 billion Euros per year between 2020 and 2022, and 13 billion Euros per year in the period 2023-2025.