Spanish
Abu Dhabi closed its Sustainability Week (ADSW) this Thursday, the first energy event of 2026 and the most important renewable energy event for the Persian Gulf country, which had Donald Trump and China as protagonists and Spain increasingly present.
From the pavilion of the Emirati renewable energy giant Masdar, which organizes this forum, the company's achievements in Spain are extended and displayed on a screen, although in the rest of the venue what has really stood out is China's deployment with almost 60 companies out of the 424 registered in the exhibition.
But also the name of the American president has resonated every day, especially after he announced last week his intention to withdraw from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), based in the Emirati capital.
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Opportunity to grow in Spain The CEO of the Spanish company Saeta Yield - since the end of 2024 acquired by Masdar -, Álvaro Pérez de Lema, assured EFE that its portfolio focuses "mainly on wind energy, but also on some photovoltaic projects and large battery storage projects". And the fact is that 2025 was a "great year" for Saeta, he said, given that they are now part of a group that "has an excellent source of funding", and that is helping to "execute new projects and, therefore, decarbonize the Spanish economy". For his part, Masdar's Executive Director of Strategy and Corporate Development, Nikolas Meitanis, told EFE that they are talking in Spain with "all the important players in the sector, from Moeve to Repsol, as well as with Endesa, Acciona and Iberdrola, with whom we already collaborate. We see growth opportunities in the Iberian region and the strategy does not change." Faced with the question of whether Masdar is considering agreements with companies with which it does not yet have an alliance in Spain, such as Repsol, none of the sources consulted wanted to talk about a potential agreement. Meitanis pointed out that he cannot confirm that they are considering an alliance with the Spanish oil company, but "we are definitely in talks with all market players", without wanting to give more details. At the end of 2024, Masdar completed the acquisition of Saeta Yield from Brookfields for an enterprise value of 1.2 billion euros, to establish itself in Spain. In addition, during 2025, the Emirati closed the 49.99% stake in a portfolio of 368 million euros composed of four operational photovoltaic solar plants of Enel Green Power España, a subsidiary of Endesa. This transaction added an operational solar capacity of 446 megawatts (MW) to the company's European portfolio, and consolidated the strategic alliance between both companies, following Masdar's acquisition of a 49.99% stake in 2 gigawatts (GW) of Endesa's solar assets in 2024. In fact, this operation - for an approximate amount of 850 million euros - was one of the largest renewable energy transactions in Spain in recent years, which raised Masdar's total gross operating capacity in the Iberian Peninsula to 3.2 GW, with more than 2 GW under development. Likewise, Saeta closed an investment agreement last March for the construction and commissioning of a 234 MW solar project in Valencia, with a possible hybridization of a 259 MW battery energy storage system (BESS). Abu Dhabi's ambition Despite still being one of the world's largest crude producers, the UAE has been betting on renewable energies for two decades, when Masdar was established, operating from the awareness that hydrocarbons will continue to be present in the coming years. Moreover, the head of Masdar - and also of the state-owned oil company ADNOC - Sultan al-Jaber, said last Tuesday during the opening ceremony of the ADSW that "in the next 15 years, the demand for energy from data centers will increase sixfold", especially due to artificial intelligence (AI). Therefore, he indicated that satisfying all this demand in a "responsible, reliable and affordable" manner implies accepting the reality that "more than 70% of this energy will continue to come from hydrocarbons." Likewise, the Abu Dhabi company aims to reach a portfolio of 100 GW by 2030 - which could be increased at some point, as Meitanis pointed out - while Al Jaber announced that they have reached 65 GW so far. From here to 2030, they plan to mobilize between 30,000 and 35,000 million dollars for those 35 GW that they need to reach that goal, although, according to what two top officials from Masdar told EFE, no Latin American country is currently part of their market for that investment.
