Europe's biggest wind power group Iberdrola reaffirmed its growth outlook for the full year on Wednesday after reporting rising quarterly earnings supported by rapid building of renewable energy plants and investments in networks.
Buoyed by a global shift towards the low-carbon energy sources it has been investing in for two decades, northern Spain-based Iberdrola plans to almost triple its renewable generation capacity to 95 gigawatts by 2030.
Core earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization rose 1.5% to 2.8 billion euros ($3.4 billion) broadly meeting the average forecast given by eight analysts polled by the company.
Reiterating guidance for net profit of 3.7-3.8 billion euros in the full year, Iberdrola also proposed a complementary dividend of 0.252 euros per share, bringing the 2020 shareholder payout to 0.42 euros per share.
Wind farms and solar plants sprung up globally at their fastest pace in two decades last year despite disruptions from COVID-19 and are set to continue apace, the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday.
President Joe Biden's administration gave Iberdrola unit Avangrid long-awaited approval this week for its Vineyard Wind project to build the first major offshore wind farm in the United States.
Iberdrola's market value has more than doubled in value over the past five years, mirroring similar gains by U.S. peer NextEra Energy and Denmark's Orsted, and its shares are now back to trading close to where they were before the coronavirus pandemic devastated global markets.
($1 = 0.8250 euros)
(Reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Carmel Crimmins)