Iberdrola has announced plans to more than double its UK investment plans through its ScottishPower business.

Iberdrola has invested £30bn in the UK over the last 15 years and the UK has already become the company’s largest investment destination to 2026. Iberdrola is now setting out a new plan to accelerate investment in the UK that could reach £24bn between 2024-2028, doubling its previous plan to invest £12bn over the same period.

Pushed by the Government pledges on expanding energy policy, including approval of large solar farms in Lincolnshire, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, and with the electricity grid set for the biggest rewiring ever seen, the investment will be welcome news for the beleaguered Government. Iberdrola estimates that two thirds of this figure would be directed to transmission and distribution networks, including the building an electricity superhighway, Eastern Green Link 1, between Torness in Scotland and Hawthorn Pit in County Durham.

Executive chairman Ignacio Galán said: “This is a vote of confidence in the UK’s clear and stable policies and is a major boost to the economy and the path towards green energy security and net-zero. The benefits of electrification in terms of energy security, industrial development, jobs and decarbonisation are shared ambitions of the UK and Iberdrola.”

Galan will meet the Prime Minister in Scotland during the UK’s first Council of Nations and Regions this week and comes ahead of the Government’s International Investment Summit in London.

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