ENEL To Add 43 GW OF Solar By 2030 In Larger Renewables Plan For 2030

By Prasanna Singh/ Updated On Thu, Nov 25th, 2021

Highlights :

After the disappointment that was COP26, it is left to energy utilities and majors to do the heavy lifting on reducing emissions and cleaning the grid.
The move by ENEL, and other similar national firms will help a long way in making up for the dud that was COP26

ENEL To Add 43 GW OF Solar By 2030 In Larger Renewables Plan For 2030

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Italian power and gas utility Enel has announced plans to invest €70 billion (US$78 billion) by 2030 across regions to scale up its renewables and energy storage portfolio. The move, announced yesterday (Nov 24) marks an effort by the energy major to bring forward its net zero plans to 2040. The company’s earlier net zero commitment is for 2050. Enel has a global presence across 30 odd countries, with a strong focus on Latin America and recently, the US, where it has acquired a 3.2 GW portfolio of assets.

The new plans have created space for 84GW of renewables, dominated by Solar and Wind for now. This includes 43GW of solar and 9GW of energy storage by 2030, when it targets a renewable capacity of 129GW. It’s renewable manufacturing arm, 3SUN which is into module manufacturing has already announced plans to increase manufacturing capacity to 3 GW by 2023, from an existing 200MW production capacity.

Combining its ownership and stewardship models is expected to take the total renewables portfolio size to 154 GW. It’s existing renewables portfolio is approximately 51 GW.

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In making the new announcement, ENEL follows the path announced by many other utility and energy majors since COP26. This involved bringing forward their net zero targets from the earlier 2050 levels to at least 2040 or earlier. German major RWE for instance, has announced a larger renewables ambition of 50GW of green generation capacity by 2030.

Enel CEO Francesco Starace says that the updated strategy will allow it to bring forward its net zero commitment by ten years besides reducing its customers’ carbon footprint by 80%.

The company has already announced an exit from coal based generation by 2027 and gas generation by 2040, counting on a mix of renewable energy and storage solutions to run operations by 2040.