IBERDROLA has signed a contract acquiring 100% of the companies MREC Partners and the company in which it participates, Midwest Renewable Energy Projects, whose head offices are in Joice (Iowa), for an amount of more than 30 million euros, which will allow it to strengthen its expansion in the US wind energy market.

The Company forecasts investing some 2,000 million dollars up to 2011 to develop the project portfolio of both companies, which amount to 1,600 megawatts (MW) of wind power located in various parts of the Mid West of the country. Of this figure, 400 MW is in an advanced development stage and 1,200 MW in the initial study stages and with a high probability of being authorised.

The acquisition of MREC Partners and Midwest Renewable Energy Projects, which is subject to obtaining the approval of the competent authorities in the United States, will allow IBERDROLA to continue its growth targets in the renewable energy sector, in which the Company is a leading world operator with 4,076 watts installed at the close of the third quarter of 2006, of which 3,743 are wind power.

This North American operation is in addition to the recently signed agreement with Gamesa to acquire wind farms in the U.S.A between 2007 and 2009, which, with an installed capacity of approximately 1,000 MW, will be located in the states of Pennsylvania, Texas and Illinois. Similarly, IBERDROLA completed in May the acquisition of Community Energy, with 2,200 MW being developed in the US, of which 200 MW are in an advanced development stage.

The Company has signed three major international operations in 2006: the purchase of the French company Perfect Wind, with a 600 MW project portfolio, the signing of a framework agreement with the Bayannaoer (north of China) town council to seek locations to install 1,000 MW of wind power and the acquisition of its first two wind farms in the United Kingdom. Moreover, the Company and Gamesa have signed the largest supply contract for wind generators in the history of wind power, for an amount exceeding 2,300 million euros and that will be executed between 2007 y 2009.

Growth forecast

IBERDROLA forecasts achieving 7,000 MW of installed renewable power by 2009 and 10,000 MW by 2011. International expansion will be the key to reaching it and it therefore has offices in Birmingham (United Kingdom), Rennes and Paris (France), Rome (Italy), Berlin (Germany), Warsaw (Poland) and the United States to add to those it already had in Greece, Portugal, Mexico y Brazil.

IBERDROLA’s renewable energy capacity is present in 12 Spanish regions and five countries: Greece, Portugal, France, Germany and Brazil. It also has projects in advanced development stages in the United Kingdom, Poland and the United States.

The company’s strong bid for renewable energy is part of its commitment to the environment, sustainable development and compliance with the Kyoto Protocol. In this way, IBERDROLA has become the only Spanish electricity company included in the Climate Leadership Index, an international recognition that demonstrates its firm strategy for combating climate change.