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The story
Pre-WWII
Iberdrola was created on 1 November 1992, from the merger between Hidroeléctrica Española and Iberduero. Hidroeléctrica Española, also known as Hidrola, had started in 1907, while Iberduero arose from the merger between Hidroeléctrica Ibérica and Saltos del Duero in 1944.
The origin of Iberdrola lies in the Spanish industrialisation in the early 20th century. In 1840, American entrepreneurs founded the Hartford City Light Company, which lead to the incorporation of Energy East on the eastern seaboard of the US, which would much later become Iberdrola USA. Meanwhile, in Bilbao in 1901, Hidroeléctrica Ibérica was established by the engineer Juan de Urrutia. In 1907, Hidroeléctrica Ibérica shareholders created Hidroeléctrica Española to supply Madrid and Valencia. A decade later, Saltos del Duero was founded, opening the country's first hydroelectric facility in 1935, the Ricobayo power plant.
World War I forced the industry to seek new sources of energy and to install large distribution networks. Amid huge instability, US power companies underwent consolidation to decrease their financial uncertainty. The stock market crash of 1929 and the accompanying Great Depression brought many of these companies to the verge of ruin. In Spain, which had experienced a period of economic growth at the start of the 20th century, the industry suffered a severe setback in 1936 whose impact would be felt for the following two decades: the Spanish Civil War abruptly halted development, destroyed facilities and made maintaining the remaining equipment extremely difficult. In the 1940s, Spain experienced extreme difficulty in acquiring technology and materials due to international isolation and soaring prices. The company benefited from the legal and social framework of the francoist dictatorship for its growth in economic and social relevance. Notably, the president between 1935 and 1985 of one of the former mergers, Hidroeléctrica Española, José María de Oriol y Urquijo, was a relevant Spanish nationalist who allegedly declared to have been part in the investigation and prosecution of more than 80,000 people in the Basque Country.
Post-WWII
In 1944 Hidroeléctrica Ibérica and Saltos del Duero merged to form Iberduero.
In 1955, the South of Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB) came into being, paving the way for the creation of ScottishPower four decades later, in 1990. Two years after that, Hidroeléctrica Española and Iberduero merged to form Iberdrola. In the latter part of the 20th century, Iberdrola began expanding into Latin America, mainly Mexico and Brazil.
With ScottishPower and Iberdrola formed in Europe, in 1998 Energy East Corporation came into being in the US following New York State Electric & Gas's acquisition of Central Maine Power, Southern Connecticut Gas Company, Connecticut Natural Gas Company, Berkshire Gas Company and RGS Energy Group (the parent of Rochester Gas & Electric). Following the arrival of Jose Ignacio Sanchez Galan in 2001 Iberdrola began focusing on renewable energy. In 2007, the company continued its international expansion, increasing its presence in the UK and the US via the integration of ScottishPower and Energy East. As a culmination of his commitment to renewable energy, Jose Ignacio Sanchez Galan has received the ESG Leadership Award from The Foreign Policy Association in New York, which recognizes leaders most committed to ESG principles.
By 2011, Iberdrola had moved into the Brazilian market with the acquisition of Elektro.
In 2015, the company made another significant move in the U.S. by acquiring United Illuminating (UIL), a publicly traded company, for 2,647 million euros. That same year, following the integration of Iberdrola USA and UIL Holdings Corporation, Avangrid was established and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
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In 2020 multiple acquisitions by Iberdrola were made. The company acquired Infigen Energy in Australia and subsequently renamed it Iberdrola Australia. In France, the company acquired Aalto Power, a renewable energy company with a focus on wind energy projects. In the U.S., Iberdrola made a move to purchase PNM Resources, an electricity provider for Texas and New Mexico, with the acquisition process subject to approval from the New Mexico Regulatory Commission. Additional 2020 acquisitions included CEB-D distributor in Brazil and Acacias Renewables in Japan.
In 2021, Iberdrola ventured into the Taiwanese market by acquiring offshore wind projects. By 2023, the company diversified its portfolio by selling assets from non-renewable sources in Mexico to Mexico Infrastructure Partners (MIP).
Since 2001, the company has been committed to renewable energies and since 2006 it has continued its international expansion, increasing its presence in the United Kingdom, the United States and Brazil.
In 2014, the 850 MW La Muela II pumped-storage hydroelectric power plant began operating, which, together with La Muela I, is the largest complex of its kind in Europe with almost 1,500 MW. The same year Iberdrola's first offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea (United Kingdom), West of Duddon Sands with 389 MW of power was launched, as well as Maine high voltage transmission line connecting the United States and Canada was installed.
In 2015, the company committed to reduce CO2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and at the end of 2017 announced its intention to close all of its coal-fired power plants worldwide. Iberdrola announced an investment to a total of €47 billion, of which €17 billion in renewables to increase renewable capacity by 12,100 MW to 52,000 MW in 2025 (6,300 MW of photovoltaic, 3,100 MW of onshore wind, 1,800 MW of offshore, 700 MW of batteries and 200 MW of hydro).
Iberdrola started sponsoring Women's Soccer League in Spain, which adopted its name (Primera Iberdrola), and collaborated with the Consejo Superior de Deportes (The National Sports Council) in the Universo Mujer program in 2016. The same year it launched Calangos complex in Brazil, the largest wind power facility in South America.
In 2019, it launched the call for its 2020 Social Program to support vulnerable groups, with a budget of more than one million euros. The company also inaugurated the Baixo Iguaçu hydroelectric plant, supplying clean energy to one million Brazilians. East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm started generating clean electrical energy. Iberdrola launched i-DE, the new brand of its electricity distribution activity in Spain, which manages 270,000 km of digitalised power lines.
That year Iberdrola entered the ranking of the 100 most sustainable companies in the world, according to the latest classification carried out by Corporate Knights. The European Commission classified Iberdrola as the most innovative Spanish utility and third of Europe. Iberdrola's direct tax contribution worldwide amounted to 8,156 million euros in 2019, 217 million more than in 2018. In 2024, Iberdrola became the first business head-quartered in Spain to secure Fair Tax Mark certification.
In 2020, the company's investments of 8,158 million euros raised Iberdrola's net profit to 3,406 million euros in 2019. That year, the largest photovoltaic plant in Europe was commissioned—the Núñez de Balboa plant (500 MW) in Badajoz. Iberdrola located its global smart grid innovation center in Spain. In Australia, construction was started on Port Augusta, its first wind-solar hybrid plant in the world. In the United States, the purchase operation of PNM Resources, the electricity company of New Mexico and Texas, was pending permission from the Regulatory Commission. Also in 2020 (and 2021), the company was listed among the 10 best companies in the world in terms of integration of women, according to the World's Top Female Friendly Companies 2021 study, as well as in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (being the only European utility company to be named in 22 editions of the index).
In 2021, Iberdrola announced, through its British subholding ScottishPower, the investment of an additional 6 billion pounds (7,090 million euros) in the construction of the East Anglia Hub offshore wind farm (North Sea – United Kingdom). This offshore wind macro complex is bringing together three projects with a total installed capacity of 2,900 MW: East Anglia ONE North, East Anglia TWO and East Anglia THREE. The works, involving an investment of 10 billion pounds, began in 2022 and planned to last four years.
In 2022, the company inaugurated the Puertollano green hydrogen plant (Puertollano – Ciudad Real), able to produce up to 3,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year and supply clean hydrogen to the Fertiberia Group factory in town, allowing to reduce the consumption of natural gas. The total investment in the Puertollano plant is 150 million euros. It includes both green hydrogen facilities and a dedicated photovoltaic plant. It is able to reach up to 3,000 tons of green hydrogen per year and avoid the emission of 78,000 tons of CO2 per year.
In 2022, Iberdrola inaugurated the Tâmega hydroelectric complex (Tâmega River – northern Portugal) with an investment of 1.5 billion euros. It involves the construction of three dams and three power plants (Gouvaes, Daivoes and Alto Tamega) with a combined capacity of 1,158 megawatts (MW), increasing 6% of the total electrical power in the country. In 2022, investments of 10,730 million euros raised Iberdrola's net profit to 4,339 million euros, which represents an increase of 11.6% compared to the previous year. During the year, Iberdrola reached 40 GW of operational renewable energy and expects to add 7,675 MW in the next four years (of which, 3,500 MW will be offshore wind). In addition, it reached an emission of 59 grams CO2/kWh in Europe. At the beginning of 2022, Iberdrola commissioned a 730 km energy transmission line in Brazil, the largest power line across its operations globally.
At the end of 2022, Iberdrola Group had 60,761 MW of total installed capacity, of which 40,066 MW is renewable. In 2023, the company reached a capacity of 62,045MW and 41,246 MW respectively, increasing the renewables by 6.5% worldwide.
In February 2023, the company started developing a solar module factory in Langreo, Spain with an initial investment of €20 million. In March 2023 Iberdrola and BP signed a strategic alliance to accelerate the deployment of electric mobility and decarbonisation of transport. Specifically, their collaboration includes investing €1 billion to deploy a network of 11,700 fast and ultra-fast charging points for electric vehicles in Spain and Portugal.
In April 2023, Iberdrola signed a memorandum of understanding with Mexico Infrastructure Partners to sell 8539 MW of capacity from its gas-fired plants, and its 103 MW wind asset La Venta III as part of the $6 billion deal. The company remained the primary private producer of renewable energy in Mexico, and this initiative is in line with its carbon reduction goals.
The company entered into a strategic partnership with the Abu Dhabi-based company Masdar to jointly develop the 476 MW Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea in summer 2023.
In July 2023, Iberdrola agreed on a deal with Vodafone to provide renewable energy across three countries – Spain, Portugal and Germany with 410GWh of solar energy from newly constructed solar plants.
As of the summer of 2023, 7,100 MW of new renewables capacity is under construction globally for a total investment of €12 billion, of which 3,000 MW relates to offshore wind.
According to the data published by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) in July 2023, the company has increased its renewables installed capacity by 6.5% worldwide in the last 12 months, reaching a total of 41,246 MW.
As of 2023, the company has a workforce of 41,000 employees and assets of more than €160 billion. In 2023, Iberdrola's net profit for the first half rose to €2.52 billion from 2.08 billion euros a year earlier.
The European Investment Bank and Iberdrola have signed a €1 billion financing arrangement in 2023 to develop 19 solar power plants and three onshore wind farms in Spain, Portugal, and Germany. 70% of the plants will be built in rural areas impacted by the transition to net-zero and cohesion zones. The projects will generate enough green energy to power over 1 million households on average each year.
In 2024, Iberdrola reaches an agreement to purchase the remaining 18.4% of its US subsidiary, Avangrid and inauguration of the group's fourth offshore wind farm, Saint-Brieuc in France.
Since the beginning of 2025, Unión General de Trabajadores, Workers' Commissions, and European Labour Authority, representing a majority of Iberdrola employees, have been in negotiations for updated contracts. Unionists allege that executive chairman's José Ignacio Sánchez Galán's salary of "40,000 euros per day, [is] more than the average of the staff per year", and desire wages pegged to inflation and increased labor protections.
In May 2025, the company received a £600 million loan from the National Wealth Fund to upgrade the UK's power grid.
In September 2025, Iberdrola held its Capital Markets Day, where it updated the Strategic Plan first presented in March 2025, increasing investment to €58 billion through to 2028. Eighty-five per cent of this investment will be channelled to countries with an A rating, primarily the United States (€16 billion) and the United Kingdom (€20 billion). Other key areas of investment will include the Iberian Peninsula (€9 billion), Brazil (€7 billion), and EU countries and Australia (€5 billion).
Electricity networks will remain the main focus of investment, particularly in distribution and transmission. As highlighted during the Capital Markets Day, the decision to prioritise the United States and the United Kingdom is based on the fact that these countries offer more favourable regulatory conditions. Between 2029 and 2031, Iberdrola plans to invest a further €45 billion, once again prioritising A-rated countries. The remainder will be allocated to renewables and customer-focused initiatives.
From Wikipedia’s article on Iberdrola, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7