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Naturgy: Sustainability and Renewables to Drive the Energy Transition

Naturgy is stepping up its role in the energy transition, with the ambitious goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 and obtaining close to 60% of installed power from renewable sources by 2025.
Naturgy

The company plans to invest €14 billion between 2021 and 2025, of which approximately two thirds will go to boosting renewable generation, tripling the 5 GW currently in operation, with a focus on stable geographies and projects in the early stages of development.

These investments will contribute to progress towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and achieve the intermediate target of a 48% reduction in scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 2025 compared to 2017.

Naturgy’s commitment to renewables since 2018 confirms its strategic shift towards a more sustainable energy mix and its commitment to decarbonisation. Moreover, the group aims to achieve all this without abandoning the fundamental objectives of value creation and growth for each of its businesses, as well as the environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives established and overseen by the Sustainability Committee within its Board of Directors.

Naturgy was one of the first companies to create a Sustainability Committee. The committee is chaired by independent director Helena Herrero, who was joined by Jaime Siles after IFM became a major shareholder of Naturgy, demonstrating the Australian fund’s interest in promoting the energy transition.

The company also considers sustainability in all decisions made by the Management Committee. Under Jordi Garcia Tabernero, General Manager of Sustainability, who reports directly to the Chairman and the Sustainability Committee, key ESG issues are addressed for the entire company in a cross-cutting, strategic manner.

Naturgy’s first US photovoltaic plant will be its largest worldwide 

The multinational energy company is making progress on its ESG commitments with significant increases in its indicators. In the first quarter of the year, emission-free installed capacity increased by nearly 3% thanks to the expansion of wind power facilities, mainly in Spain and Australia.

Specifically, between the end of the first quarter of 2021 and the end of the first quarter of 2022, Naturgy put into commercial operation 73 MW in Spain and 181 MW in Australia.

During this period, the group also started construction on six projects with a capacity of 238 MW in Spain and two projects with a capacity of 276 MW in Australia and 68 MW in Chile, respectively.

 

Naturgy

Naturgy also recently began construction on what will be its first renewable energy facility in the United States. The 7V Solar Ranch, a photovoltaic power plant in eastern Texas, will have 300 MW of peak power. The total investment in this project will amount to €264 million.

The plant, which is expected to come online before the end of 2023, will occupy more than 800 hectares in Fayette County. It will consist of approximately 555,600 photovoltaic modules and will generate 560 GWh of electricity per year.

Naturgy’s first photovoltaic power plant in the United States will also be the company’s largest facility using this technology anywhere in the world. Strategically located near major urban areas such as Houston, Austin, San Antonio and Dallas, the plant will serve an area of high potential and growing demand.

In the next few years, Naturgy plans to invest more than €1 billion in the United States to reach an operating capacity of 500 MW by 2023 and 1,200 MW by 2025. Last year, the company acquired a portfolio of 25 projects in the United States, totalling more than 3.5 GW, and signed an exclusive five-year development agreement with Candela Renewables.

 

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