Enel plans shift from solar to onshore wind and storage
Global renewables giant says that onshore wind has 'better profile' than PV, while stressing importance of grids as 'backbone' of energy transition
Enel plans to shift away from solar towards onshore wind and energy storage to reduce “volatility” in its renewable energy portfolio, while also massively ramping up its investment in grids.
The Italian power giant revealed its new strategic plan for 2025-27 as part of its Capital Markets Day, outlining how it will spend around €43bn ($45.4bn) over the period, €7bn more than under its previous plan for 2024-26.
Its Enel Green Power unit is one of the world's largest renewable energy developers and operators with almost 65GW under its wing globally.
The new plan will see Enel plough around €12bn ($12.7bn) into renewables during that period, adding around 12GW of capacity.
Enel also plans to shift its technological mix to 70% of onshore wind and dispatchable power generation from batteries and hydropower.
Enel CEO Flavio Cattaneo said this will “improve our generation mix” as onshore wind “has a better profile than solar.”
Increased storage capacity is meanwhile needed to “balance” the increasing renewables profile, he said. “Energy systems will require baseload technologies and storage to match the demand and minimise price volatility.”
Cattaneo cited a “concrete case” as Enel’s sale of solar assets in Spain, with the Italian utility having in July sold a 49.9% stake in a project to the UAE’s Masdar for €817m. A few months later it bought up over 600MW of hydropower assets from Acciona Group for €1bn.
This hydropower capacity has “programmable storage capabilities” that he said is important during this “transitional phase” for the energy sector.
Enel will also invest €26bn in grids, 40% more than in its previous plan, of which around 78% will be in Italy and Spain, with the remainder in Latin America.
Cattaneo said that distribution networks will be the “backbone of the transition” under any scenario. They also need “high investment to host the growing renewable capacity and increase resilience to extreme weather events.”
“Dramatic” weather events in the last year fuelled by climate change have he said “convinced governments and regulators of the urgency” to enhance regulatory frameworks for grids.
By 2027, Enel said its group ordinary Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) is expected to grow to between €24.1bn-€24.5bn and its net ordinary income will hit between €7.1bn and €7.5bn.
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