News

Iberdrola and IFEMA have decided to join together in their strategies to promote transport electrification, by signing an agreement making the energy utility IFEMA's strategic partner in promoting sustainable mobility through a number of different actions.

The first initiative in this partnership has been to implement the first sustainable public car park in a Spanish exhibition centre. The car park will be operational from tomorrow and will be made available to attendees at the World Climate Summit (COP 25), which IFEMA is hosting from next week until 13 December.

The strategic alliance was signed this morning by Iberdrola Spain's CEO, Ángeles Santamaría, and IFEMA's Executive Committee president, Clemente González Soler, who both visited the new green car park, called the 'Iberdrola electric charging car park', where they carried out the first electric charging.

The infrastructure deployed at IFEMA by Iberdrola allows the simultaneous charging of 34 electric vehicles and is part of other initiatives that both companies will develop jointly, such as organising and participating in activities to raise awareness and promote electric mobility. This is in line with its strategy to promote the transition towards a more sustainable and competitive energy model and to move forward in the decarbonisation of the economy.

“The strategic agreement reached emphasises the importance of working together with all the players involved in sustainable mobility. With IFEMA we have found a perfect ally to move forward with setting up charging solutions to meet the challenges of electric mobility, based on clean energy free of CO₂ emissions,” explains Ángeles Santamaría, CEO of Iberdrola Spain. She also points out that “transport electrification, together with the unstoppable growth of electricity generated from renewable sources, will make a decisive contribution in reducing pollution in our cities and increasing energy efficiency”.

For his part, the Executive Committee president of IFEMA, Clemente González Soler, pointed out that "this alliance in which Iberdrola becomes a strategic partner of the institution is a decisive step in our Social Responsibility policy and in our commitment to the United Nations Global Compact. It has not taken long for this agreement to take its first practical step, with the inauguration of the first electric charging car park in a Spanish exhibition centre. Its launch will coincide with the biggest political event on the environment, namely the World Climate Summit, which IFEMA has had the honour of producing and hosting in Spain."

 

Green energy and digital solutions

The 'Iberdrola electric charging car park', which according to estimates could be used to charge 13,000 electric vehicles a year, will provide 100% green energy from cleanly generated sources, with Guarantee of Renewable Origin certificates (GOs). Based on this use, 226 tonnes of CO2 would be prevented from being emitted into the atmosphere annually.

In addition, the users of this facility at IFEMA will be able to carry out the charging in a simple and digital way, through Iberdrola's Public Charging app, which allows them to geolocate, book and pay by mobile phone.

 

Leading the energy transition

The agreement reached this morning is part of Iberdrola’s plans to promote and lead the energy transition to sustainable mobility and the electrification of transport as a way to fight climate change.

Iberdrola is rolling out a Sustainable Mobility Plan that envisages the deployment of 25,000 electric vehicle charging stations in Spain by 2021, aimed at homes and businesses, as well as publicly accessible urban and inter-urban areas. The plan includes installing fast, super-fast and ultra-fast charging stations on the main motorways and highways, reaching all provincial capitals and making it possible to drive all the way across Spain in an electric vehicle.

Iberdrola is working on different initiatives to 'mobilise' all the agents involved in sustainable mobility, from governments to institutions, companies and electric vehicle manufacturers.

The company has recently become the first Spanish business to subscribe to The Climate Group’s EV100 initiative, with the aim of accelerating the transition towards electric vehicles with a commitment to electrify its entire fleet of vehicles and allow its staff to charge their vehicles at its businesses in Spain and the United Kingdom by 2030.

 

IFEMA Mobility Strategy

Within IFEMA's Social Responsibility policy, the commitment to sustainable mobility, applied through its main trade fairs in the automotive sector, as well as through its own institutional policies, represents a key factor in managing different initiatives and partnerships, such as that signed with Iberdrola, which becomes a strategic partner in the field of mobility and transport electrification. A partnership that will make it possible to build an informative framework to convey messages to both the business sector and the public in order to raise conscientiousness towards an ecologically and environmentally favourable transition through the use of electric cars. Hence this first major initiative, with Iberdrola, to introduce a car park reserved for charging electrical vehicles into its parking areas, available to the over 4 million people who visit IFEMA every year.

Also in the area of environmental responsibility, IFEMA has been undertaking various actions aimed at generating the least environmental impact, such as the construction of a geothermal plant for the climate control energy supply in the exhibition centre's main building in Madrid and the use of low-consumption LED lighting in the 200,000 m₂ of exhibition space spread around 12 halls, which represents a saving of 897.57 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, equivalent to that generated by 600 vehicles per year. In addition, IFEMA has recently joined the United Nations Global Compact and is committed to aligning its activities and events with the SDGs.