José Manuel Entrecanales, Chairman and CEO of ACCIONA, speaking today at Bloomberg’s “The Future of Energy Summit” in London, pointed out that “the faster the electrification of the global economy, the swifter will be the transition to renewable energies”, a key component in halting global warming.

Mr Entrecanales said the European Union should design its new pan-European electricity market system around renewables. “We are at a key juncture. The EU is designing a new regulatory framework that must have renewable energies at the core,” he said. He also called for the elimination of mechanisms, markets and payments related to capacity.  Conditions should be also created for electrifying key sectors of the economy, he added, such as transport, which today represents over 50% of carbon emissions.

The ACCIONA Chair made reference to the growing number of companies and entities that, when consuming energy, want to know where it comes from. “Corporate customers increasingly want to be assured that they are consuming renewable energy. This will undoubtedly become – indeed it is already – a growing tendency in the years to come,” he said in the speech.

Mr Entrecanales stated that ACCIONA would continue participating in electricity auctions in countries such as Mexico and Chile, in which the company recently won long-term supply contracts in calls for tender that were highly competitive. He added, however, that the company would always be seeking to take part based on profitability criteria. “We are in enough markets to be selective,” the ACCIONA Chairman said. He warned that governments needed to scrutinize participants in auctions to ensure they had the capacity to undertake projects to deadline and at the agreed price.