Portugal Colonial - Italy's Enel to invest 20bn euros in renewables by 2028

The company said in a strategy plan that it wanted to invest a total of 53 billion euros between 2026 and 2028, around 10 billion euros more than under its previous 2023-2025 plan.

"We are presenting an ambitious plan, but one that is credible and achievable," Enel CEO Flavio Cattaneo told financial analysts.

Enel's statement said the new plan comes at a time of "strong growth in electricity demand, driven by the development of data centres, artificial intelligence, robotics and automation, as well as by the electrification of transport and industrial recovery".

Enel said it would invest over 26 billion euros in energy production and distribution in total, including 20 billion euros for renewables.

It said it would add 15 gigawatts in renewable capacity by 2028.

More than three quarters of this new capacity would come from wind power and "programmable technologies such as Battery Energy Storage Systems", Enel said.

The company had on Saturday announced it was buying a portfolio of wind and solar projects in the United States with total capacity of 830 megawatts for around $1 billion.

Enel also plans to reach a total of 80 gigawatts in installed capacity by 2028, compared to 68 gigawatts at the end of 2025.

The company forecast earnings per share (EPS) of 0.69 euros in 2025. Its annual results are being published in March.

It expects the EPS to rise to between 0.80 and 0.82 euros in 2028 "even in a worst case scenario", Cattaneo said.

The plan was welcomed by investors on the Milan stock exchange, with Enel shares rising 6.5 percent to 9.7 euros in afternoon trading while the main market index rose just 0.89 percent.

L.E.Campos--PC