Repsol plans to grow wind fleet in new ‘low-carbon’ unit

Spanish oil company Repsol plans to grow its “low-carbon energy generation” fleet from just over 1GW currently to 7.5GW by 2025 and then 15GW by 2030, with onshore wind due to play a key role.

It aims to invest €5.5 billion in its newly launched “low-carbon” business between 2021 and 2025, but this is only 30% of its planned €18.3 billion total investment during this period.

Repsol expects to spend €600 million on renewable energy in 2020. It is unclear what else is included under the banner ‘low carbon’.

The oil company does not give a firm target for specific technologies, but an investor presentation (below) indicates it could have a net ownership of around 5.5GW of onshore wind capacity if its entire wind pipeline is realised.

Repsol does not have any immediate plans to follow its counterparts into offshore wind in a meaningful way, but a spokesman advised it may do so at a later date.

Most of its new renewable energy capacity would be in the Iberian peninsula, with Chile being its secondary target market, according to an investor presentation (below).

Repsol currently has 379MW of net wind power capacity in operation and is not currently building any wind farms.

However, it states that it has “high-visibility” of a 1.5GW wind pipeline – currently expecting 90% of this capacity to be completed – and is developing or negotiating 3.5GW of wind power capacity.

If all of these projects are brought to completion, Repsol would have a 5.4GW wind fleet – just over 40% of the 12.7GW total renewable capacity it currently envisages as commissioning by 2030. The company forecasts 5.6GW of solar and 1.7GW of hydro capacity being brought online by the end of the decade.

It is unclear whether Repsol will aim to commission more wind power capacity than this, however.