Scottish Power owner to plough £24bn into UK green infrastructure

The owner of Scottish Power is set to double its investment in UK green energy projects.

Spanish firm Iberdrola has recently made the UK its largest global investment destination with up to £24bn being spent over the next four years.

The announcement came during the inaugural Council of the Nations and Regions, chaired by Keir Starmer in Edinburgh last Thursday.

It preceded the International Investment Summit, which is being hosted by the prime minister in the City of London today.

Starmer said: “We are creating the conditions for businesses to thrive, and our International Investment Summit will be a springboard for every part of the UK to be an engine of innovation and investment.”

Iberdrola will direct most of the grant towards enhancing the UK’s electricity grid, including the Eastern Green Link 1, a new subsea superhighway transporting renewable energy between Scotland and England.

Meanwhile, two new wind farms off the coast of East Anglia are underway. East Anglia 2 and East Anglia 3 secured contracts earlier this year and are set to power around one million homes, according to Scottish Power.

Iberdrola’s executive chairman and Scottish Power chairman Ignacio Galán said: “Stable regulatory frameworks and [the] overall attractiveness of the UK are leading us to double our investments for 2024-28, reaching up to £24bn.”

Other renewable energy investors include Orsted and GreenVolt, which committed a total of £10.5bn to offshore wind farms, while SeAh Wind UK will invest £225m to expand its wind technology factory in Teesside.