EDP Renováveis is a leading renewable energy

Renewable energy

Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...

 company headquartered in Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 that designs, develops, manages and operates power plants that generate electricity using renewable energy sources.

EDPR was established in 2007 to hold and operate the growing renewable energy assets of parent company Energias de Portugal

Energias de Portugal

EDP - Energias de Portugal ranks among Europe's major electricity operators, as well as being one of Portugal's largest business groups....

 (EDP Group), Portugal´s largest utility company headquartered in Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

. EDP Renováveis is the third-largest generator of wind energy

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

 globally (after Iberdrola Renovables

Iberdrola Renovables

- Iberdrola Renovables was a subsidiary of Iberdrola, headquartered in Valencia, Spain, which included companies in the domains of renewable energy, particularly wind power...

 and NextEra Energy Resources

NextEra Energy Resources

NextEra Energy Resources is an wholesale electricity supplier based in Juno Beach, Florida. It is a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc. , a Fortune 200 company. Prior to 2009, NextEra Energy Resources was known as FPL Energy....

).

EDPR´s business currently includes wind farms and, to a limited extent, mini-hydro energy activities. The company has also said it is actively exploring opportunities in other renewable energy technologies.

Geography

EDPR operates in three broad geographic areas: Europe, North America and South America. It currently owns and operates more than 180 wind farms in Spain, Portugal, France, Belgium, Poland, Romania, the United States and Brazil. It also has various wind projects in different stages of construction and development in Italy, Canada and the UK and is actively engaged in expanding its activities into other countries. As of the first quarter of 2011, EDPR employed 850 people of 16 nationalities across 42 offices worldwide.

Ownership

EDPR is majority owned by EDP Group. EDP holds significant electricity and gas operations in Europe, Brazil and the United States through its various constituent businesses.

EDP listed 22.5% of the company in an initial public offering

Initial public offering

An initial public offering or stock market launch, is the first sale of stock by a private company to the public. It can be used by either small or large companies to raise expansion capital and become publicly traded enterprises...

 on Euronext Lisbon

Euronext Lisbon

Euronext Lisbon is a stock exchange in Lisbon, Portugal. It belongs to the NYSE Euronext group, the first global stock exchange.Euronext Lisbon trades equities, public and private bonds, participation bonds, warrants, corporate warrants, investment trust units, and exchange traded funds...

 in June 2008, upon which it immediately became a member of the benchmark PSI-20

PSI-20

The PSI-20 is a benchmark stock market index of companies that trade on Euronext Lisbon, the main stock exchange of Portugal. The index tracks the prices of the twenty listings with the largest market capitalisation and share turnover in the PSI Geral, the general stock market of the Lisbon exchange...

 index as its fifth-largest company by market capitalisation

Market capitalization

Market capitalization is a measurement of the value of the ownership interest that shareholders hold in a business enterprise. It is equal to the share price times the number of shares outstanding of a publicly traded company...

.

Growth

Today EDPR is 3rd in the world in wind energy based on net installed capacity and is consistently ranked in the top three in terms of growth in the sector.

EDPR´s installed gross capacity increased 20% or 1.1 GW year-over-year to 6.7 GW in 2010, giving it a compounded annual growth rate of more than 47% since 2006.

Total production of electricity by 32% to 14.352 GWh in 2010.

EDPR says it plans to continue its rapid growth with 31 GW in pipeline projects.

To date, EDPR has focused on onshore wind energy. However, to ensure long-term development, EDPR says it is exploring opportunities and closely following technological and regulatory developments in other renewable energies such as solar thermal, offshore wind and wave energy. It is also working on research and development projects to improve the output and efficiency of its wind farms.