Iberdrola and Qatar sign agreement to strengthen their innovation partnership

Iberdrola and the Qatar Investment Promotion Agency (IPA Qatar) have joined forces to boost the energy company's leading innovation center, with the aim of advancing the digitization of Qatar's electricity sector. The agreement will expand the Spanish company's Research, Development and Innovation (R&D&I) activities through its Iberdrola Innovation Middle East center, based in Doha, Iberdrola said in a statement.

The new collaboration will help boost innovative solutions and products in the public and private sectors, the energy company said. The center, currently located in the Qatar Science and Technology Park, will delve into technological challenges related to innovation and digitalization in smart grids, renewable energy integration and energy efficiency. "The contribution of the Qatari agency will be key to accelerate the projects of the innovation platform located in the country's capital," said the company chaired by Ignacio Galán.

The platform will focus on aligning Iberdrola's R&D&I activities with the needs of Qatari industry and will cooperate with companies and training centers to boost local talent. It will do so through skills development and training programs and will share intellectual property rights with local educational and industrial institutions.

Ignacio Galán, who reaffirmed this alliance at a business meeting organized by the CEOE (Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations), said that "Iberdrola has been and will continue to be an accelerator for the expansion of small companies in the world". Iberdrola's chairman added that the company's experience in Qatar for almost 20 years is the best testimony of the opportunities in the country. "Just today we signed an expansion agreement here, consolidating a center that is already a world reference in smart grids, renewable energy integration and energy efficiency, and undoubtedly the most cutting-edge in the Middle East in its field," he said.

STRATEGIC ALLIANCE

Iberdrola has become a strategic partner of Qatar in recent years. Their collaboration was consolidated in 2011, when the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) became Iberdrola's main shareholder.

This strategic alliance has enabled the company to increase its size sixfold, making it the leading company on the Qatari stock exchange, with a market capitalization of nearly 70 billion euros, the largest electricity company in Europe, and one of the four largest in the world, Iberdrola stressed in the statement.