Enel Offshore Wind Initiatives for 2025: Key Projects, Strategies and Partnerships

Enel’s Strategic Pivot: How Onshore Wind is Reshaping a Renewable Energy Giant

From Global Scale to Focused Execution: A Strategic Inflection Point in Wind Power

Between 2021 and 2024, Enel solidified its position as the world’s largest private renewable power generator, managing over 63 GW of capacity. The period was characterized by broad strategic positioning, including the completion of its first large-scale hybrid wind-plus-storage project, Azure Sky in Texas, which validated the commercial viability of integrating 350 MW of wind with 136.5 MW of storage. However, this era was also marked by strategic evaluation, with a new CEO assessing the company’s stance on offshore wind and a plan materializing to exit peripheral markets like Vietnam. The key inflection point arrived with the 2024-2026 strategic plan, which explicitly prioritized onshore wind and energy storage over solar to reduce portfolio volatility and improve returns. This marked a deliberate shift from accumulating global GWs to optimizing the financial and operational performance of its portfolio.

Since January 2025, this strategy has transitioned from plan to aggressive execution. The focus has sharpened considerably on acquiring, developing, and optimizing onshore wind assets in core markets. A flurry of activity, including the full acquisition of Cetasa’s 99 MW operating portfolio in Spain, the construction of 110 MW of new capacity in Zaragoza, and an asset swap in the U.S. adding 285 MW, demonstrates a clear execution of the new playbook. Furthermore, the partnership with VR Vision to deploy virtual reality training for technicians signals a maturing operational focus. This variety of activities—M&A, greenfield development, asset optimization, and operational technology deployment—highlights that Enel’s wind strategy has moved beyond simple expansion to a sophisticated, multi-pronged approach aimed at maximizing value from a scaled, core technology.

Capitalizing the Strategy: A Disciplined Investment Approach

Enel’s investment strategy has evolved in lockstep with its operational focus, moving from broad, long-term capital allocation plans to a series of precise, tactical deployments and divestitures. The initial period established large-scale investment frameworks, such as the €12.1 billion plan for renewables through 2026. The period since 2025 has demonstrated how that capital is being put to work through specific acquisitions, new construction, and strategic sales designed to refine the portfolio. The divestment of the Windpeshi project, for instance, represents a disciplined decision to reallocate capital away from a single project in Colombia, while the acquisitions in Spain concentrate investment in a high-growth, core market. This demonstrates a clear trend of active portfolio management, where capital is fluidly directed toward the highest-return opportunities within the onshore wind sector.

Table: Enel’s Recent Wind-Related Investments and Divestitures

Partnerships as a Tool for Strategic Growth and Optimization

Enel leverages partnerships as a critical instrument for both growth and portfolio optimization. Between 2021 and 2024, partnerships were primarily used to restructure its global footprint and de-risk expansion. Joint ventures with INPEX in Australia and Macquarie in Greece, along with the sale of its Romanian portfolio to PPC, allowed Enel to share capital burdens and focus resources. The Masdar partnership in Spain signaled a commitment to large-scale development in a core market. In 2025, the nature of partnerships shifted toward tactical growth and operational enhancement. The asset swap with Gulf Pacific Power in the U.S. and the joint acquisition with Macquarie in Greece are examples of sophisticated deals to rapidly increase operating capacity. Concurrently, the collaboration with VR Vision represents a new frontier of partnership focused on technological enhancement of its existing, mature asset base.

Table: Enel’s Strategic Wind Power Partnerships

A Geographic Shift: From Global Reach to Core Market Depth

Between 2021 and 2024, Enel’s geographic strategy was expansive, with major investment plans announced for Europe (€7.2 billion), Latin America (€2.6 billion), and North America (€2.3 billion). Activities spanned the globe, from completing a hybrid project in Texas and forming a JV in Australia to deploying a wave energy device in Chile. This period was also defined by strategic consolidation, most notably the decision to exit Vietnam and sell its Romanian assets. This signaled a pivot away from maintaining a presence in every possible market toward concentrating on regions with the best returns and most stable regulatory frameworks.

From 2025 onwards, this concentration has become a clear reality. Spain has emerged as a central hub for Enel’s onshore wind growth, evidenced by the Cetasa acquisition (99 MW), the new Zaragoza construction (110 MW), and the massive 2.5 GW partnership with Masdar. This deep dive into the Spanish market demonstrates a belief in its long-term potential. North America remains a key region for optimization and growth, with the 285 MW asset swap with Gulf Pacific Power showcasing a sophisticated approach to expanding its fleet. Meanwhile, the divestment of the Windpeshi project in Colombia further refines the portfolio, reinforcing the strategy of exiting non-core assets to double down on primary markets. The mainstreaming of Enel’s wind business is now happening through deep, integrated saturation of key countries rather than a thinly spread global presence.

Technology Maturation: From Hybrid Validation to Operational Excellence

Enel’s relationship with technology shows a clear maturation curve for its wind business. In the 2021-2024 period, the technological focus was on proving new commercial models and exploring adjacent innovations. The commissioning of the Azure Sky wind-plus-storage project was a landmark achievement, moving large-scale hybrid systems from concept to commercial reality. Simultaneously, explorations into wind turbine blade recycling (2021) and wave energy (2021) showed a company looking at both the long-term sustainability challenges and future growth opportunities for a mature industry. The strategic ambiguity around offshore wind during this time confirmed that it remained outside the company’s core scaled technologies.

The period from 2025 to today reveals a shift in technological focus from asset innovation to operational innovation. Onshore wind is no longer a technology to be proven but an asset class to be optimized at scale. The partnership with VR Vision is the most salient example of this trend. By implementing VR for technician training, Enel is investing in the safety, efficiency, and scalability of its maintenance operations. This is a technology application characteristic of a highly mature industry where marginal gains in operational performance can yield significant financial results across a vast portfolio. The focus is no longer on *what* to build, but *how* to run it better.

Table: SWOT Analysis of Enel’s Wind Power Strategy

The Year Ahead: A Focus on Execution and Integration

The data from 2025 signals that the year ahead for Enel’s wind business will be defined by execution, integration, and optimization. The strategic decisions have been made; now the focus is on delivering results. Market actors should pay close attention to the progress of the 110 MW Zaragoza wind farms and the development of Cetasa’s 30 MW pipeline, as these projects will be key tests of Enel’s ability to deliver on its Spanish growth ambitions. In the U.S., the integration of the 285 MW from the Gulf Pacific Power swap will be a critical indicator of its portfolio management capabilities. Expect to see announcements of further projects funded by the US$13.8 billion 2025-2027 investment plan, likely concentrated in onshore wind and storage in Europe and North America.

The signal from the VR Vision partnership is perhaps the most forward-looking: Enel is now competing on operational excellence. As its fleet of wind assets grows, the ability to maintain and operate these farms efficiently and safely will become a key competitive differentiator. The era of broad global expansion is losing steam, replaced by a powerful new momentum centered on deep, integrated growth in core markets and leveraging technology to extract maximum value from every turbine.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the main change in Enel’s recent renewable energy strategy?
The main change is a strategic pivot from broad global expansion to a more focused approach. According to its 2024-2026 plan, Enel is prioritizing onshore wind and energy storage over solar to optimize financial returns and reduce portfolio volatility, shifting focus from simply accumulating global gigawatts to maximizing the performance of its assets in core markets.

Why is Enel focusing specifically on onshore wind?
Enel is focusing on onshore wind as a core, scaled technology to improve returns and stabilize its portfolio. The strategic plan explicitly prioritizes it over solar to reduce volatility. The company also seems to be avoiding the complexities of offshore wind for now, as the article notes there was ‘strategic uncertainty’ regarding it, which was resolved by the clear focus on onshore.

Which geographic regions are most important to Enel’s new strategy?
Enel is concentrating its efforts on core markets, primarily Spain and North America. In Spain, this is demonstrated by the acquisition of Cetasa’s 99 MW portfolio, the construction of 110 MW of new capacity in Zaragoza, and a large partnership with Masdar. In North America, Enel executed a significant asset swap to add 285 MW to its fleet.

How is Enel using technology to support its wind business?
Enel’s technology focus has matured from proving new commercial models, like its Azure Sky wind-plus-storage project, to enhancing operational excellence. A key example is its 2025 partnership with VR Vision to develop a virtual reality training program for wind technicians, which aims to improve safety and efficiency across its large portfolio of existing assets.

What do Enel’s recent sales of assets, like the Windpeshi project, signify?
The divestment of assets like the 205 MW Windpeshi project in Colombia is a key part of Enel’s new strategy of ‘active portfolio management.’ These sales represent a disciplined approach to capital allocation, allowing Enel to exit non-core assets or peripheral markets and reinvest the capital into higher-return opportunities within its primary markets, such as Spain and North America.

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