Enel plans to drive 120 GW of renewables capacity by 2030

Italian energy company Enel has announced plans to invest €70 billion in clean energy up to 2030, to secure an estimated 120 GW of generation capacity this decade.

The business – which is 23.6% owned by largest shareholder the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance – said it will spend €17 billion of the €38 billion it will allocate for investments on the traditional model, in the next two years, to renewables, taking Enel’s clean energy generation capacity from 45 GW today to 60 GW in 2023. Over the next nine years or so, the utility plans to devote €70 billion of the €150 billion it will apportion for traditional spending, to clean energy. In each case the balance of the traditional investment funds will be spent on “infrastructure and networks.”

Outlining the strategy, Enel specified a spending division between “ownership” and “stewardship” approaches. With the company on a “journey towards becoming a fully digital company,” Enel said, the ownership business model will see it invest funds and use its digital assets to enhance operations. The much smaller, stewardship approach will see the company use its digital platforms to attract joint investment from third-party companies.

Under that latter model, Enel will invest €10 billion of its own funds up to 2030 to attract €30 billion of outside investment into renewables, e-mobility, fiber broadband and energy grid flexibility. The first step along that path will involve €2 billion of Enel cash over the next two years to attract €8 billion of partnership funding.

Enel said the strategy would drive the deployment of around 5,500 electric buses by 2030 with the company boasting 10.6 GW of demand-response capacity and 527 MW of energy storage facilities while reducing its direct CO₂ emissions by 80% from their 2017 levels.

pv magazine has asked Enel whether any of the spend allotted for infrastructure and networks will be used to transport natural gas.