Spanish firm to sell ‘clean’ electricty to California

8 June 2007

MADRID – Union Fenosa, Spain’s third-biggest electricity company, will invest in nonpolluting electricity generators in Mexico, with a view to supplying power to California, the company said.

Union Fenosa’s vice president, Honorato Lopez Isla, made the announcement after an annual general meeting of Union Fenosa shareholders. He told journalists the company would invest around EUR 600 million (US$808 million) in a project based near La Rumorosa, in northern Baja California, according to company spokeswoman Ines Garcia Paine.

Lopez Isla said there was a plan to generate power by several means for distribution in the U.S. state of California, confirming an earlier report in Spanish newspaper El Pais.

California’s efforts to try and combat global warming by capping greenhouse gas emissions have been in the spotlight since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state’s legislative Democrats reached the deal to cut emissions in August 2006.

Schwarzenegger made California the first U.S. state to limit greenhouse gases, and has signed agreements with other state and foreign governments in a bid to address global warming.

Union Fenosa intends to capitalize on California’s requirement for “green” energy by exploiting Mexico’s 2,700 hours per year of useful sunlight, Lopez Isla said.