Masdar accelerates cross-border growth towards 100 GW by 2030

Masdar’s twelfth sustainability report sketches a company moving at speed on a broad expansion path, widening its global footprint while keeping governance, biodiversity and inclusive leadership at the core of its growth. The document frames Masdar as delivering a record jump in its project portfolio capacity, even as it tightens its asset base across Europe and North America and sharpens its green-finance credentials. Honestly, the pace is striking. The report highlights a trajectory that isn’t just about bigger numbers, but about building a more integrated, cross-border platform that can scale with sustainability at the center.

Masdar reports a 62% jump in the total capacity of its project portfolio over the last year, reaching 51 gigawatts. Of this, the portion that is in operation or under construction sits at 32.6 GW, with the rest in planning or advanced development. The portfolio’s energy production climbed to 29,225 gigawatt-hours, helping avert roughly 15.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. In a sign of its breadth, Masdar notes that its project footprint now spans more than 40 countries, with nine markets highlighted for accelerated execution in the coming years. The company asserts that this growth is a clear indicator of leadership in sustainable energy, financing and governance. You see, the scale matters, but so does the structure.

The sustainability report places a strong emphasis on Masdar’s expanding international presence, underscored by recent strategic acquisitions and partnerships in Europe and the United States. In Europe, Masdar has extended its Iberian footprint by acquiring Saeta Yield for about $1.4 billion, a move designed to add roughly 745 megawatts of wind assets and a 1.6 GW development pipeline across Spain and Portugal. The purchase forms part of a broader push to diversify geographically and to accelerate the path to Masdar’s 2030 target of 100 GW of capacity. The company said in a statement that the deal strengthens its European platform and complements existing partnerships, including a joint undertaking with Endesa on a 2 GW solar portfolio in the region. It’s a pretty clear signal that regional diversification is more than a tactic—it’s a backbone, and yes, it matters.

Masdar’s European growth is paired with a major United States expansion, where the company completed the closing of a 50% stake in Terra-Gen Power Holdings II. Terra-Gen already operates a substantial portfolio spanning wind, solar and battery storage across around 30 sites, with more than 3.8 GW gross operational capacity and a development pipeline exceeding 12 GW intended to bring more projects online from 2025 onward. The tie-up, supported by Igneo Infrastructure Partners, is framed as a cornerstone of Masdar’s North American strategy, designed to accelerate the company’s overall goal of reaching 100 GW by 2030 through a robust, cross-border platform. Well, it’s about building a coherent, scalable footprint that crosses oceans.

In its push into strategic European acquisitions, Masdar also highlighted the Greek energy firm Terna Energy as a notable milestone, with an enterprise value of €3.2 billion. In addition to these deals, Masdar announced a 49% stake in a 2 GW solar portfolio with Inesa in the Iberian market, signaling a broader commitment to solar-plus-wind combinations and to leveraging established markets to scale rapidly. The company’s leadership frames these moves as essential to its ambition of building a diverse, resilient and optimised global portfolio. This broader approach—you could say a strategy with multiple levers—seems to be the operating assumption.

Beyond capacity and geography, Masdar’s sustainability report foregrounds its advancing financial framework and governance. The issuance of green bonds expanded in 2024, reflecting strong investor appetite for Masdar’s climate-aligned assets. Fitch upgraded Masdar’s credit rating to AA-, accompanied by a sustainable credit rating score of 2 and a total ESG score of 71 out of 100, underscoring the market’s confidence in Masdar’s financial discipline and environmental stewardship. The company notes that green finance remains a central pillar of its growth strategy, enabling more rapid deployment of renewable projects across its markets. It’s pretty handy when financing and governance reinforce each other, isn’t it?

The report also highlights Masdar’s commitments to biodiversity and responsible project design. A notable example is the Zarafshan wind farm in Uzbekistan, where Masdar has deployed AI-powered Identiflight technology to protect birds of prey. The system uses camera-based detection to trigger turbine shut-offs when protected species approach, resuming normal operation only when the airspace is clear. Masdar describes this as the largest biodiversity-protection wind project in its portfolio, covering around 110 turbines with more than 70 Identiflight towers. Company officials emphasize that biodiversity safeguards are embedded in Masdar’s project planning, not afterthoughts. Honestly, the emphasis on ecology reads like an integrated design principle rather than an add-on.

On the social and leadership front, Masdar asserts progress in workforce inclusivity, noting that women account for around one-fifth of the company’s management team. The report frames this as part of a broader commitment to inclusive development, capabilities-building and local-community empowerment—an approach Masdar says underpins sustainable urban development, energy access and job creation in the markets where it operates. You can tell it matters to the leadership, and the numbers carry weight, but the story is also about culture.

Industry observers view Masdar’s 2024 performance as a telling signal of how a blended model—combining aggressive expansions with rigorous governance and finance—can accelerate a clean-energy transformation. The acquisitions in Greece, Spain and the United States, the larger European footprint via Saeta, and North American development activity are all cited as evidence of Masdar’s strategy to diversify risk while improving scale and capital access. Reuters has reported Masdar’s Iberian deals and linked them to its broader 2030 ambition, noting that such moves are part of a pattern of international growth designed to capitalize on mature markets and institutional investment flows. It’s a telling assessment, and not without good reason.

Executives and analysts alike emphasize that Masdar’s expansion is not merely about adding megawatts. As the sustainability report clarifies, the company is pursuing a holistic approach that ties project execution to sustainable finance, governance excellence, biodiversity safeguards and leadership development. Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, Masdar’s chief executive, characterized 2024 as a milestone year that saw the firm expand its project footprint, bolster its financial capabilities and advance initiatives that align with inclusive, sustainable development. He stressed that Masdar will “continue to support innovation and cement its position as a trusted partner for governments and communities around the world.” It’s a strong articulation, and there’s a sense that the speaker believes it.

In sum, the twelfth annual sustainability report frames Masdar as a growing global platform with a diversified, geographically balanced project portfolio and a clear end-state target of 100 GW by 2030. The collaboration with major European utilities, the expansion into North America, and the emphasis on biodiversity and inclusive leadership reflect a company intent on marrying scale with responsibility as the cleaner-energy transition accelerates worldwide. The developments also illustrate Abu Dhabi’s broader climate leadership and financial strategy, anchored by a robust green-finance backbone and a portfolio that spans solar, wind, storage and emerging technologies such as green hydrogen. It all points to a strategy that blends ambition with a plan, doesn’t it.

Source: Noah Wire Services