BARCELONA | Through its municipal and environmental services subsidiary Cespa, Ferrovial Services announced it has installed the first wind-powered recharging station for electric vehicles in Europe. The station, equipped with a 4 kW wind turbine, is the first in Europe to generate electricity from wind and use it for vehicle recharging.

Cespa manages municipal waste collection and cleaning contracts in western Barcelona as well as an end-to-end garden maintenance contract in the city’s metropolitan area. Javier Llansó, general manager of Cespa described the event as the opening of a new market.

“This vehicle recharging station is part of an ambitious project by Cespa which includes environmental initiatives such as a high-pressure car wash with a water recovery system, photovoltaic panels, and a compressed natural gas station for vehicles.”

General Electric and Urban Green Energy have both collaborated on this project with a view to promoting clean energy use.

All of these installations will be certified to the ISO 50.001 standard on energy efficiency. The project, which is a pioneer in Europe, has already successfully been implemented in New York and Beijing, and places Cespa and Barcelona in on the European forefront of this worldwide trend, the company said.

Being one of the main companies for waste management and gardening in Spain, Cespa not only covers the entire Spanish state but is also present in Portugal. It started presenting tenders in the United Kingdom in 2007. In 2010, its joint venture AmeyCespa acquired the English firm Donarbon and was awarded the Yorkshire’s waste management contract.

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By submitting the prospectus and legal documentation required, Greentech requested that the regulator approved its offer for the Catalan renewable energy company as the final step before opening the acceptance period, which has now began.

The Danish company said in a note that

“Greentech aims with this transaction to create a leading European group among independent renewable energy generators, with installed capacity of approximately 600 MW, and a pipeline of more than 700MW in different renewable technologies.”

Greentech’s strategic plan forecasts reaching 1GW of installed capacity by the close of 2013. The new group would have income of approximately €120 million, and earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation of around €80 million. In addition, it will have an asset portfolio with attractive geographic diversity with a presence in Spain, Italy, Poland, India, Denmark, Germany, Norway the Balkans and France. Fersa declared it had increased its operational capacity by 19.1% in 2011 compared with the previous financial year.

The offer is exclusively contingent upon acceptance by shareholders representing at least 70.001.890 shares of Fersa, which would be equivalent to more than 50% of Fersa’s voting rights. The acceptance period of the tender offer, according to Spanish law, will last a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 70 days, to be decided by Greentech.

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These are the arguments put forward on Thursday by Rosa García, Siemens Spain CEO, during the company’s presentation of its strategic plan for the next five years.

“Our solar and wind fields can generate clean energy to meet the needs of the areas where industrial structure is more developed. We cannot let this opportunity pass,” said the CEO.

García, who spent twenty years in the Spanish subsidiary of Microsoft, of which she became president, aspires to increase by 50% Siemens’ turnover in 2017, which would result in a profit of €2 billion.

The way to achieve these objectives, proposed by the renowned directors, is none other than to put Siemens technologies at the service of the renewable energy sector.

“Siemens has all the technologies Spain needs to recover from the recession, to gain in productivity and sustainability.”

García could not ignore the government’s recent decision to abolish the premium to the renewable plants to be constructed in the future. She asked that the sector not be ‘criminalised’ and she favoured giving priority to the continuity to ‘certain’ renewable technologies until they ‘mature’. She also requested of the government that it avoid a ‘patchwork’ energy policy, but she refused to make deeper assessments regarding other strategic issues such as nuclear power.

“It’s the governments that chose their energy policy, Siemens can only explain which technologies one must have to be more efficient.”

Another goal of the Siemens subsidiary is to contribute to the Spain brand. The company believes that it can provide its expertise to companies and join them in their internationalisation process. Nowadays, 110,000 Spanish companies are exporting and 50% of the Ibex 35 listed companies’ turnover comes from their international projects.

The third and last major impulse of Siemens technology in Spain can come in the form of cost savings and improvements in production processes.

“On the one hand, the Spanish industrial base is antiquated. On the other, the energy consumption is still very high and our solutions can help obtain a savings of up to 40%,” concluded the Siemens Spain subsidiary CEO.

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Is it possible in Enel's case that there be a turning back operation as the Iberdrola Renewables one? That was a difficult operation to understand, without economic logic and bad for the minority. Unlike Iberdrola, EGP's price is higher now than when it began trading. The parent company of the renewable placed it a bargain price. Enel would have to pay a lot to re-buy its subsidiary and, although it would be a good deal for the shareholders, this is not our intention.

Some believe that in Spain there is regulatory uncertainty. Do you agree? Spain is five years ahead in the development of renewables, because it started earlier and it can not be criticized without taking into account that there has been a more rapid and profound development. I often say that, if Italy, France, Greece and Romania want to know what will happen, they have to catch a plane and come to Madrid. There are problems that Spain has already resolved and that other countries are trying to solve now. The transformation is very interesting because it will set the tone for the rest of the other countries. In my opinion, the change of the regulatory framework that will occur will be much broader, going beyond renewables.

Another belief is that the renewables premiums in Spain are the highest in Europe. No. The record is in Italy; and, in France and Spain, they are similar.

 The problem then is that in Spain there are many megawatts? Yes. Renewables are not child's play where you have to keep the children happy so they won't bother you. It is a very important part of the energy mix and it will not disappear. There are many non-industrial investors and knowing how to treat them is a very interesting matter.

* The original interview, here.

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