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The King and Queen of Spain, accompanied by the Minister of Education and Vocational Training, Isabel Celaá, and the Chairman of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, today inaugurated the company's Innovation and Training Campus in San Agustín del Guadalix (Madrid), within the framework of the Iberdrola RETO Day, with a focus on Recovery, Clean Energy, Energy Transition and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

These state-of-the-art facilities serve as Iberdrola’s global centre for knowledge, innovation and job creation. With nearly 13,000 people receiving training in its classrooms every year, it represents Iberdrola's commitment to technology, R&D and collaboration with technology centres leading the energy transition, and the green economic recovery, as well as the employment and employability of young and senior professionals in sectors of the future.

Spaeking at the event, Ignacio Galán, Chairman of Iberdrola, highlighted that "the Campus is born from the conviction that the future does not belong to those who theorise, but to those who deliver it. The longest standstill in two generations will be a catalyst for true sustainable development and a recovery that leaves no one behind. This is the RETO (challenge) we must face together. And we have the tools to overcome it: Recovery, Clean Energy, Energy Transition and SDGs".

During the visit to the Campus, the King and Queen of Spain and Minister Celaá learned first-hand about Iberdrola's commitment to the European Re-skilling 4 Employment programme, an initiative of the European Roundtable of Industry (ERT), co-led by the company, with the aim of providing skills training for people at risk of losing their jobs due to the impact of the digital divide. The project aims to promote between 2.5 and 5 million jobs in Europe and between half a million and 1 million in Spain by 2030 among groups such as the long-term unemployed, young people and the over-45s.

The digital revolution, automation and an evolving skills landscape have caused a professional gap that puts many people’s jobs in Europe at risk. In this context, Iberdrola, together with other companies such as SAP, Telefónica and McKinsey & Company, will contribute to boosting training and search for structural solutions against unemployment on the continent. The project is aligned with the priorities of the European Recovery Plan and the Spain Can Recovery Plan, scheduled to be launched officially next May.

Many of the 53 hours of training that each Iberdrola employee receives per year are given in the classrooms and workshops of the Campus. Iberdrola also carries out skills training activities in collaboration with universities such as Pontificia de Comillas and Deusto, in the Basque Country; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the United States; the University of Strathclyde, in the United Kingdom; the Technologic Institute of Monterrey, in Mexico; and Hamad Bin Khalifa University, in Qatar.

Recognition of a global ecosystem of 22,000 suppliers and 400,000 workers

During the inauguration, King Phillip and Queen Letizia, together with Ignacio Galán, presented the Iberdrola RETO (Recovery, Energy, Transition and SDG) Supplier of the Year Awards to four companies. Two of them – explained the Chairman of Iberdrola – "have excelled in the promotion of two aspects set by Europe for recovery, such as the energy transition and digitisation. And the other two are examples of two major objectives of our society, jobs and equality".

In this context, Mapfre was recognised for its commitment to equality; and the British company Kirby for its commitment to digitalisation. Van Oord, a Dutch company specialising in maritime construction, was acknowledged for its advances towards the energy transition; and the Basque consultancy firm Ibermática, specialising in information technologies, was recognised for its promotion of quality jobs. Iberdrola also awarded a special COVID mention to five companies –Amara, Ormazabal, Iturri, Wottoline and DSV – for their commitment during the pandemic. "Companies that, in the midst of the crisis, worked side by side with us to selflessly deliver the medical equipment that we provided to the authorities at a time when it was in such short supply", said Galán.

With these Awards, Iberdrola wished to highlight the work of the strategic partners that make up its supply chain and to recognise a year of particularly close collaboration due to the pandemic. In 2020, the company, in addition to providing stable, quality employment for nearly 40,000 professionals, added 3,800 new professionals to the group, made record investments of close to €10 billion euros and advanced orders for €14 billion euros to its 22,000 suppliers, thus providing visibility to an ecosystem of partners that supports 400,000 jobs worldwide.

In 2020, the tax contribution of the company's activities amounted to €7.5 billion worldwide, of which €3.4 billion was paid in Spain. The year also represented ta major stride forward in the company’s commitment to the energy transition, an objective to which the company has allocated €120 billion over the past twenty years.

To this end, it will invest another €150 billion by 2030 - the largest industrial plan ever presented by a Spanish company. This will triple its renewable capacity, already one of the world’s largest – to almost 100,000 MW; deliver smarter grid networks and promote new energy growth areas such as green hydrogen.

Investing in innovation to transform industry and jobs

As part of the inauguration, the Spanish monarchs toured various new energy-technology projects that exemplify Iberdrola's commitment to R&D&I. The company has made investments of more than €2.3 billion in R&D since 2010 – of which nearly €300 million was invested by 2020 alone – and has committed to reach €400 million per year by 2025, Iberdrola is the leading private energy company in Europe and the second in the world in terms of investment in innovation, according to the European Commission.

The company has exhibited its progress in one of the most promising technologies of the future, offshore wind, where it is one of the world leaders. It currently has three wind farms in operation in the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Irish Sea, and has a pipeline of 19,000 MW, of which 9,000 MW are ready for construction.

Another solution for the decarbonisation of industry and heavy transport in the coming years, in which innovation plays a key role, is green hydrogen. In alliance with Fertiberia, Iberdrola is making progress in the development of an ambitious comprehensive project to make Spain an industrial leader in this sector, with the projection of 800 MW of green hydrogen production capacity, with an investment of €1.8 billion by 2027. The innovation initiative will begin with the start-up of the first and largest green hydrogen complex for industrial use in Europe, which will be operational in Puertollano this year. It will also work on the development of the local supply chain in Spain with the Iberlyzer project.

For these renewable technologies to be efficiently integrated into a robust, flexible and digital energy system, it is essential to have more and smarter grids. The company is undertaking ambitious investment plans and has launched its Global Smartgrids Innovation Hub, also located in Spain, which will act as a platform for innovation, combining the company's technological capacity with that of suppliers, collaborators and start-ups.

Biodiversity and reforestation of 20 million trees by the end of the decade

Aware that halting biodiversity loss is one of humanity's greatest challenges in combating climate change, Iberdrola has set a reforestation target of 20 million trees by the end of the decade, an amount capable of capturing approximately six million tonnes of CO₂ in 30 years. To meet this goal, it will plant 2.5 million by 2022 and 8 million by 2025.

During the visit to the centre of excellence, the company also announced its collaboration with CO₂ Revolution, which specialises in planting pre-germinated seeds from drones. With the support of drones to speed up planting, this initiative is capable of reforesting large areas of land with native species in record time.