Welcome to the Acciona Energía first half results for the year 2022. With me today on my right, Rafael Mateo, CEO, and on my left, Arantza Ezpeleta, Chief Financial and Sustainability Officer, and on the floor to answer your questions, should it be necessary, the core of our management team. Let me begin by looking out the window to note that what only a few years back we spoke about as a hypothesis is now unfortunately becoming the norm. The weather this summer is probably no longer a freak event or a circumstance that will happen in the future. What was for years accurately predicted by this scientific consensus has now become a recurrent reality. It is likely that we are tilting towards the more pessimistic scenarios of climatic consequences of CO₂ concentration.
Not only will extreme climatic events become the norm, but they will also no longer mostly affect the developing world. It is now us, the rich world, those who produce about 75% of the global greenhouse gas emissions, the ones who are suffering directly and meaningfully the consequences of climate change. Hopefully, this will make us react at the pace and with the conviction required. Because there is an urgent need for commitments to materialize, policies to be activated, and above all, huge investments to be made. It is precisely high prices for energy and emission rights, the signals that should accelerate the deployment of that massive amount of capital investment essential for decarbonization. The challenge of energy independence add to this, conundrum.
Only between January and May 2022, the generation of solar and wind power may have saved Europe fossil fuel imports in the order of $50 billion at least. There shouldn't be any question that renewables are no longer a rich country's environmental luxury, but the only feasible, timely, and technologically available option. Ladies and gentlemen, Acciona is undoubtedly in the right industry at the right time, but it is indeed not by coincidence. We have been investing heavily for over 20 years, and we need to double our efforts for the next 20. With us, a massive amount of private capital must be attracted into this industry to have at least a minimum chance of avoiding the approaching climatic chaos. Unfortunately, however, we are suffering a myriad of regulatory measures that undermine investors' confidence by tampering with two of our most important investment rules.
One, the game rule book shouldn't change after the match has started, or once the long-term investment has been made. Two, effectively capping the upside of an investment while not providing symmetrical downside cover destroys the investment equation. They are both most powerful investment deterrents. All investors' fundamentals, particularly those of companies that pioneered the industry, start shaking when precisely those who champion renewables and encourage us to invest for the long term now find some fossil fuels acceptable, fight to cap CO₂ prices, or impose regulatory changes or special taxes that penalize the companies which have contribute and will contribute the most to the change in the energy paradigm. How will we deal with the next energy challenge 10 or 15 years down the road?
For example, will hydrogen investments, when profitable, if ever, be submitted to a windfall tax? Will battery storage, floating offshore, or electric mobility be penalized by future governments if they ever become successful investments? Because energy transition, like any other technological transition, works very much like venture capital. You succeed in a small part of your investment, you survive in the majority, and you blatantly fail in another few. If you penalize the positive ones, the portfolio fails to perform. Acciona's nearly EUR 10 billion investment in renewable energy in Spain over the past 20 years follows that exact pattern. All in all, acceptable market returns in our core technologies for the first 10 years, far below market return over the last 10 years after the regulatory reforms of 2012, and good returns in the half, in the first half of 2022.
That's how long-term investment works. Favorable markets make up for bad times. The growing trend of demonizing profitability or imposing regulatory changes every time there's an exogenous event, whether a financial crisis, a geopolitical tension, or public budget shortage, sends the most unsettling message to investors and plays a key role in diverting investment destination. Because of course, the whole world is experiencing high energy prices, but it is precisely in this context where regulatory stability is tested, and in those regions where regulatory stability is of paramount importance and rooted in good policymaking, subsidy mechanisms for vulnerable consumers are the preferred solutions. Despite contradictory regulatory signals in some places, all in all, global policies are going in the right direction and support the secular trends that underpin the renewable energy sector.
By 2026, global renewable electricity capacity is forecast to rise more than 60% based on 2020 levels to the order of 4.8 GW, equivalent to the total current global power capacity of fossil fuels and nuclear combined. In the first half of 2022 alone, renewable energy generation grew by 10%, curbing the overall CO₂ emissions intensity of the electricity sector by more than 2%. This is also great news for the climate. On the private side, in recent years, we've also seen a true acceleration of demand for carbon-free energy with new records for corporate PPAs expected for this year too, reinforced with new pressing priorities such as security of supply and price stability.
We are particularly proud of the 1.7 TWh of PPAs that we have signed in recent months with Spanish industrial producers, providing them with clean energy at affordable long-term prices. The markets are now anticipating higher long-term energy prices, and it is in the short term we are seeing PPA prices move up significantly. On the one hand, because of alternative fossil price volatility, on the other, because of the acute scarcity value of advanced renewable energy projects. A growing number of them are being delayed due to supply chain and permitting difficulties. Speculative investors who, despite aggressive auction bids, fail to deliver, or the sheer frustration of long-term investors spooked by current, recurrent contradictory, regulatory signals.
Against that, and despite significant opposing forces, the medium term is looking very promising in several regions where until recently it was a foggy time to make investment decisions given the increase in CapEx, and the cost in capital. There was a dilemma on whether to invest at peak CapEx and rising financial costs or wait for a clearer environment where PPA prices reflected a higher CapEx scenario. Fortunately, we can now comfortably say that this dilemma is behind us and that the outlook for future energy prices fully reflects and offsets the higher investment cost scenario. All in all, Acciona Energía is very well prepared, even more so after the successful IPO, to navigate this new challenging market and to contribute to solve the urgent environmental crisis, providing secure, affordable, and independent renewable energy.
The current state of the equity markets and their own performance since the IPO underscore the higher strategic economic value of a large and efficient operating fleet of renewable energy assets, probably now impossible to replicate. Also the value of our development pipeline, our balance sheet strength, our access to capital markets, and our reputation as a pure, determined, and uncompromised global renewable leader provide us with distinct competitive advantages, particularly valuable in this volatile economic environment. As I assess the uncertainty, the uncertainties facing the world, I am convinced that we're on the right track. We seek to seize the opportunities for profitable growth while maintaining a balanced risk profile focused on operational excellence. In essence, it's about building a business that has great positive impact in the planet and in its present and future generations. Thank you very much.
I hand over the floor to Rafael Mateo, CEO.
Thank you, José Manuel, and good morning to everyone. We are presenting today good set of first half results. This can be seen across all the lines in the P&L and also in terms of cash flow generation, which during half one largely cover our investment needs, as well as the payment of the dividend on last year results. The numbers are driven by the high commodity environment across all our key markets, not just Europe, also the U.S., Australia and so on. This year, our sales were a bit more open to market prices, and the rollover of hedges has allowed us to increase our strip price. Lower financial cost on the year-on-year comparison also helped to drive the bottom line, which half one 2022 is still showing the impact of the IPO recapitalization in half one 2021.
With respect to the balance sheet and our ability to fund the growth, Fitch Ratings recently reaffirmed its investment grade rating of triple B minus with a stable outlook. Our debt as of June is flat relative to December at EUR 2 billion, and we expect to be around 1.5 net debt to EBITDA ratio at year-end, which I believe puts the company amongst the best capitalized companies in the sector. We have also completed very recently the Standard & Poor's ESG evaluation annual update, and we have increased our score to 87 points, remaining the top energy company within their coverage. All of these elements help us to have a privileged access to the funding markets. During the first half of the year, we issued our second green bond, a 10-year bond, ahead of a very significant base rate.
In April, we also issued our inaugural U.S. private placement 50-year note, giving us the access to this liquid and stable market with the preference for very long tenors. Both transactions were very substantially oversubscribed and very efficient in cost. The financial resource in this first part of the year put us firmly on the track to meet the outlook we set out at the beginning of the year. On the commercial policy side, I'd like to mention that we have been very active during this first half of the year in managing our risk, deploying our generation to supply strategy, and doing it with conviction.
We have signed, as José Manuel said, 1.7 TWh, close to 20% of our Spanish output, with industrial clients, mostly on a 10-year basis, with regulated volumes of electricity, with a short residual regulatory life being replaced by long-term contracts. Outside of Spain, demand for greenfield PPAs remains also very strong, and prices are naturally moving up. In our view, they still need to increase further given the high CapEx cost scenario and rising cost of funding. On the growth side, in the supply chain, I will elaborate in detail in a second, but in summary, we have record capacity under construction, more than 2 GW, but capacity additions in 2022 will be lower than we planned.
Our expectation for year-end have fallen from approximately 830 megawatts to around 540 megawatts, and the anti-circumvention process in the U.S. has meant that the module supply in the U.S. market during 2022 will remain heavily constrained. Our two projects in this market in final construction stage will partially slip into 2023. In slide seven, we take a deeper look into the supply chain challenges. We have taken many actions during the last 12 months to contain the risk of further projects delays and price increases. In terms of our current projects, we have been concentrated in the Spanish markets with a combination of wind and PV projects, also in Australia, with the construction of the McIntyre Wind project, the largest in our history.
We have around 1.3 GW of solar PV projects in the U.S. that are under construction or just starting. In Australia and in Europe, we have been working hard to resolve the challenge in logistics, in the supply of equipment, in contractors, in permitting, and so on. We have looked into shipping contracts for Europe and Australia, the supply of modules for Europe and the EPC contract for McIntyre. We think the risk here are now contained, and we know well today where we stand. With respect to the U.S. market, it has been very tough to secure logistics at a very fixed price and secure supply in terms of speed, but we have managed to do it. That leaves us with the critical issue of the supply of the PV modules themselves.
Again, the U.S. anti-circumvention petition and the subsequent investigation has done a lot of damage to the supply market that was already under pressure. Having said that, now the 2-year waiver on the tariffs is a very positive news, allowing the PV demand to continue growing in this American market. On the other side, our main supplier of modules manufactured in Southeast Asia will not be able to provide us with the volumes that we need and that we had contracted. In this context, we have recently closed an additional contract with an Indian tier-one supplier. That meets our expectation and requirement in terms of quality, ESG, and pricing that will, together with our existing contract, cover our 1.3 GW of the U.S. needs during 2022 and 2023.
In the US market, we are also optimizing the work of the EPC contractors among the different sites to adapt the lack of module in projects that are all but ready and other projects that are just starting with the construction work. I want to note here that while other players have abandoned projects or are totally uncertain about resuming their plans, we are completing our Fort Bend and High Point projects in the U.S. that are under construction at the moment, and starting with the construction of Union and Red Tail Hawk project in Texas. In the slide, we have included also our estimate of how CapEx unit costs have evolved since the pandemic and post-Ukraine war relative to 2020.
In summary, the sector is looking at CapEx increasing by close to 20%, and although commodities and cost seem to have gone past the peak, polysilicon price is still very high prices and very expensive. In terms of the CapEx cost for our projects at hand, that's representing around 3.4 GW of capacity under construction or about starting the construction or have been completed in 2021 and so far in 2022, our CapEx has increased by high single digits relative to our initial expectations, so significantly lower than the market. I like to note that we have IRR headroom enough in these projects, and that around 30% of the sales were not contracted from a revenue perspective, so we have the ability to contain the impact. Turning now to slide number 8 in our construction plan.
In this slide, you can see the evidence of the strong acceleration in the activity with close to 1.5 GW of projects starting construction during the first half, taking the total to 2.1 GW, which we will maintain at year-end with the completion during the second half of the year of close to 500 MW and the start of the construction of another 500 MW. Our construction plans, like everyone else, may be behind schedule due to the supply chain and the related challenges, but the acceleration in our levels of activity is unstoppable. In 2023, we are going to see a dramatic change in the rate of megawatts installed with the completion of the McIntyre project and most of our near-term U.S. PV program, which amounts to 1.3 GW in another investment in Spain and in Latin America.
In the slide number nine, we have included some good level of details of the projects with some of the key projects. We have included a chart with the S-curve showing the progress of the preconstruction and construction activities. In the slide 10, I want to briefly mention the progress beyond the immediate progress under construction. I believe that 2023 could be the year for the takeoff of Brazil and Spain. During the second half of 2022, we will have news of our progress with the Brazilian development projects and the second wave of the Spanish projects that are awaiting today the connection to the grid and are awaiting today also the environmental permitting, respectively.
In Spain, apart from the 1.1 GW of capacity that is awaiting environmental permitting in the very immediate short term, we are also awaiting the result of the Mudéjar node auction, where we are bidding for interconnection rights for close to 900 MW in a joint venture with Falck Renewables. I want to mention the award of the 12-year regulated PPA for 72 MW in Croatia. That, although small, will be a very attractive project in terms of return. Finally, we have included in the slide other developments with respect to the offshore wind activity, where we have been tendering alongside with SSE in Poland for the seabed rights.
To comment about the progress that we are making in the floating offshore market, becoming today the largest holder in the French floating structure specialist company, Eolink, as well as being shortlisted for the European funds in two demonstration projects that we are partners in. In the slide 11, you can see our energy balance for Spain, in 2022 and the potential for 2023. I want to highlight that we are very actively managing our commercial policy and our sales at risk in a very volatile environment. Not only in terms of power prices, but also in terms of regulatory intervention and in terms of the acceleration of the maturity of our regulated assets in Spain in the context of very high electricity prices in the short term.
With respect to 2022, we are basically done for the year in terms of hedging, with close to 5 TWh closed at prices around 130 EUR/MWh through financial hedges and supply contracts. Most of this position were contracted before the changes in the gas windfall exemption regime. With respect to 2023, we anticipate at this stage lower regulated volumes next year as more assets are reaching full payback of the regulatory capital. In the current context of higher and more volatile power prices, our risk models, as well as the common sense, are recommending that we should temporarily increase our exposure to the market prices. In addition to that, the current windfall tax mechanisms in Spain and the lack of regulatory visibility or further regulatory actions also go against the hedging.
We have, for the time being, contracted 3.4 TWh of our generation volume for next year, 2023, with significant generation to supply long-term contracts signed at prices that naturally reflect longer-term average rather than the expected spot prices in 2023. All in all, our average locking price for the time being is EUR 110 per Wh for 2023. Depending on the evolution of the regulation and power prices, we could potentially increase our 2023 hedging position by another 2.5 TWh in Spain, again, through a combination of financial hedge or supply contracts. I want to stress that although our core philosophy of contracting energy 80/20 remains in place, in this environment, we have to be more dynamic, more flexible, and we need to adapt to our policy to the very volatile and challenging changing circumstances.
We need to be prepared to have a slightly higher open position for a while, both in Spain as well in certain other markets. Thank you for your attention, and let me hand over to Arantza to deepen the financial economics.
Thank you, Rafael. Let me start with the key figures. Revenues reached EUR 2.2 billion with flat production, average prices increasing by 70%, and energy supply volumes increasing both in volume and price. EBITDA for the period amounted to EUR 909 million, up 71%, mostly due to the Spanish business and with international EBITDA falling, as last year included extraordinary profits in the U.S. market. Earnings before tax and net income increased strongly to EUR 570 million and EUR 390 million respectively, driven by EBITDA growth and lower interest charges. We have negative items like the EUR 35 million impairment of our Ukraine assets and a EUR 61 million negative charge related to the mark to market of certain hedge contracts in the U.S. that go through the P&L.
Net investment cash flow amounted to EUR 770 million in the first half, relative to the investment for the year 2022 as a whole, which could go up to EUR 1.2 billion. Net debt at EUR 2 billion is flat, with operating cash flow in the first half being largely sufficient to cover the investment needs as well as the annual dividend. In terms of operating data, as we said, output is flat with weak resource in Spain, both in hydro and wind, and worse than expected production outside of Spain. Prices are strongly increasing, particularly in Europe, and that flows to higher EBITDA generation margins. In slide 14, we include our most relevant social and environmental indicators with generally good progress across the board.
The proportion of women in executive and management posts increases by almost 3% to 25% as a result of new hires and promotions internationally. This is starting to reflect the strengthening of our leadership programs in female talent these past years. In Chile, we have 25% of the O&M workforce being women, when this was zero in 2020. Following the implementation of the social impact management methodology, we have 114 projects going in 12 countries. The accident frequency index fell and is below our target for the year. In terms of environment, our Scope 1 and 2 emissions fell by 5.9% due to the reduction in electricity consumption in some facilities and lower gas consumption in our only concentrated solar plant.
We have 4 decarbonization projects ongoing, including the electrification of the vehicle fleet and installation and monitoring of the SF6-free switchgears at our plants. Waste sent to landfill has also been reduced thanks to less waste in construction projects, continuing with the reuse of 100% of the legally recoverable slag and ash from the biomass plants, and increasing the percentage of the recovered waste due to the use of the sludge as fertilizer. We have been active on the green financing front and reaffirmed our industry-leading score in the Standard & Poor's ESG assessment. In slide 15, you can see the investment during the period with roughly EUR 500 million of CapEx, mostly in generation assets in the US, Spain and Australia, and close to EUR 270 million of next CapEx deferrals related to some completed plants in Mexico and Australia.
Moving to slide 16, we saw the movement in the net debt over the period with the operating cash flow of EUR 838 million, including positive working capital related mostly to the hydro levy refunds and, to a lesser extent, to the banding mechanism in the Spanish regulated assets. This cash flow was close to fully covering the EUR 770 million net investment cash flow and investment of the 2021 dividend of EUR 92 million. Starting now with the review of the Spanish and international generation businesses, let me move to slide 17. In Spain, the average price during the first half of last year was EUR 58.6 MWh, while in the second half, it increased to EUR 164.4 MWh.
In the first six months of 2022, the average Spanish pool price was EUR 206/MWh, driven basically by exceptional natural gas prices. In terms of hydro, it is one of the driest years in recent history, and reserves are the lowest in the last five years. In slide 18, we have laid out the main drivers for the Spanish generation revenues. Output was down 6% due to the low wind and hydro resource. Volumes from assets that are receiving regulatory income this year represented 1.7 TWh or 35% of the 4.9 TWh of consolidated production in Spain. Achieved prices were high despite the lower regulatory income and the banding adjustment for those asset ventures that we expect to remain regulated in the next three-year period, starting January 2023.
Wholesale production that was hedged amounts to 2.2 TWh or 45% of total, and achieved a price of EUR 125/MWh. Unhedged wholesale output obtained a price of EUR 202/MWh, just under the EUR 206/MWh average price in the Spanish market. All in all, the Spanish achieved price was EUR 169/MWh, EUR 37/MWh below the average market price, mostly due to hedging and combined with the 6% lower output, results in EUR 833 million of generation revenues. In slide 19, generation EBITDA in Spain grew as a result of the price drivers just discussed and despite the lower output. Total EBITDA amounted to EUR 676 million, with EUR 670 million related to generation and EUR 6 million from supply and others.
In slide 20, you can see some statistics on the main markets we operate, but perhaps it's easy to see the evolution in slide 22. In slide 21, you can see the volumes generated in the main regions where we operate, as well as the achieved prices and resulting revenues. Output during the first half grew by close to 7% to 5.3 TWh and close to 4% on a like-for-like basis. This is still significantly below our expected levels due to low resource and growing curtailment in certain regions. Achieved price fell by 12% to 11%, sorry, on average, despite power prices generally up in almost all of our markets. This decline is explained due to the fact that last year, the U.S. business benefit from producing energy during the Texas storm and capturing high prices there.
In summary, generation revenues in the international business fell by 5% to EUR 358 million. In slide 22, we saw the revenues and EBITDA per region. Total international EBITDA fell by 27% to EUR 234 million, with generation EBITDA falling by 18% to EUR 251 million. Thank you very much, and let me hand back to José Manuel to start the Q&A session.
Thank you, Arancha. We have received a number of questions, which I will read out and pass on to my colleagues. The first question we have is about capacity growth targets for 2022 and 2023, and that comes from Jorge Guimarães at JB Capital Markets, from Oscar Nájar, from Royal Bank of Canada, Fernando García, Roberto Ranieri from Stifel, and CaixaBank. Rafael, please.
Yes. Thank you, José Manuel. In terms of the capacity additions in 2022, you have seen the presentation that we are going to add 540 MW during 2022. This is because we delay something around 290 MW from 2022 to 2023, mainly to projects in the U.S. market PV projects because the delays in the import of PV panels from China and from Asia to the U.S. during the anti-circumvention period. For the next year, for 2023, we will end 2022 with 2.1 GW under construction, but during 2023, we are adding some projects, especially in Spain, Ayora PV plant in Valencia and some others that are close to receive the environmental approval.
Our idea is to connect 2.5-2.6 GW to the grid in 2023.
A follow-up question to that one from the same group of investors is whether we maintain our 10 GW targets for 2025.
Yeah, yeah, we are going to maintain the target. As you can see in the presentation, we are accelerating the development and demonstration of the project. That's clear that is this year because several reasons, there is some delay, but in the future, we are doing more. It's interesting to know that in two of our hubs, in Australia and in the U.S., we have simultaneously 1 + 1.5 GW under construction that are going on track. We are maintaining today our targets of 20 GW at the end of 2025.
We have a question from Oscar Nájar on whether we are expecting the second half results and 2023 results, what we're expecting takes into account our hedges, the hedges in place. Arantza, I think you can answer this one.
Yes. The profitability for the second half of the year to not be the same as first half as the Iberian exception cost cap is already in place, and the power prices that we are seeing in the forward market are lower than the ones that we've seen in this first half, no? In the first half, the power prices in Spain were 206 EUR/MWh, as I was mentioning before. For the second half, we are seeing forward prices around 150 EUR/MWh. As per 2023, I would say that it is too early to say. Power prices, we are seeing them strengthening further. They're moving strongly higher than 200 EUR/MWh, but there are still too many uncertainties, so it's difficult to be able to anticipate what the results would be at this stage.
Okay. Thank you, Arantza. Now there's a question on what the new tax or the potential tax, which we've come across this morning, of 2% on revenues will entail for us. We can't say. We know very little. In fact, what we know is what's public. We don't know whether it's going to be charged on all revenues, on generation, and therefore, there's little we can add to what is public. And this from Fernando García, what is the positive impact on P&L from the change in Spanish regulation of renewables in 2022? Arantza, please.
Yes. It is broadly neutral in those assets that will continue to be regulated from next year onwards, as the lower regulatory income is compensated by a higher banding price. We are recognizing for you to know a banding adjustment of the same vintages that we were doing for the previous year from 2021.
Okay. From Fernando García, Royal Bank of Canada, he asks whether we have any impact on the anti-circumvention and delays on the anti-circumvention, and whether we will have projects in time. We do. There is an impact. Yeah, why don't you take it, Enrique Pérez-Plá and team, please?
Yeah. Hello, everybody. We are not having a real impact in our cost or timeframes for the projects. What we have is more, let's say, tranquility. We are more confident that we will not have any problem with the projects that we have currently under construction. As Rafael was mentioning, we have been driven to postpone around 200+ MW from 2022 to 2023, but that now is all done, so we have already managed to secure all these new supplies. That's it. The real impact is in our confidence on the projects moving forward.
Thank you, Enrique. From Stifel, Roberto Ranieri, we have a question to provide an update on the split of PPA-driven revenues versus power market price-driven revenues in terms of percentage. Why don't you take it, Santi?
Hi, good morning. You know our commercial policy is set by our risk analysis, and so it's not independent of regulation in and markets in each geography. In the first half of this year, we had 76% of our production covered with PPAs, hedges, or regulation, etc. In the presentation, there are more details about the Spanish business, whereas we need to be particularly active given the evolution of prices and regulation. In 2022, in Spain, we basically hedged with customers, regulation and financial hedges at levels that we were. Now we are above 80% of volume. For 2023, in the presentation, you have also the figures.
We have around 55% cover between regulation and contract hedges. We could top up another 20-25%, depending again on how regulation is going and the power prices development.
Thank you, Santi. Okay, question number eight from Roberto Ranieri, Stifel. In case of M&A, whether we see implied multiple expansions and if we are interested in the Enel assets in Australia. José, why don't you take that one?
Hi, good morning. In terms of multiples, it's difficult to generalize given how our diverse geographical presence. However, it is true that we're seeing strong M&A activity in some of our key markets, particularly in Europe and in the U.S. In some cases, assets and projects being transacted at relatively high multiples. We think that is a reflection of the strong fundamentals and momentum in our sector in general. We remain disciplined, and we look for assets. We're in no rush to grow at all costs. We look for assets and opportunities that represent good value and that have a good strategic fit, and we are seeing a number of those as well.
We continue to look out for those, but are in no rush to compete where we think those prices are being bid up. In terms of the second part of the question that talked about a disposal of Enel’s assets in Australia, we're not currently looking at it, given that it's an operating portfolio, and I believe it's the sale is for a stake in that portfolio to finance development pipeline. That is not particularly the sort of transaction that we would be interested in.
Thank you. Next question is the impact from J.P., Caixa, and Kempen, and Garrido, Trindade, Flora Trindade, y Chavarrón. The impact from the Spanish clawback in 2022 and if it would be extended into 2023. Rafa, why don't you take that?
Well, the windfall tax during 2022 have been a very limited impact from a financial perspective, thanks to the hedge we put in place before, from 2021 to 2022, according to our conservative commercial policy. By the way, the hedge are at prices below the current market prices. The hedge are not incentivized by the potential clawback extension. If the clawback is extended for the second half of 2023, it will penalize the hedge or not, depending on the rules for the new exemption.
Thank you, Rafa. Question, next question, expectations for supply chain issues and CapEx inflation in second half of 2023. In second half of 2022 and 2023. Why don't you take this one, Enrique Pérez-Plá?
Yeah. Thanks, José Manuel. Yes, we are not expecting major implications after the ones that we already had in the current projects under construction. As Rafael mentioned during the presentation, we are forecasting as an overall rule, close to 20% CapEx increase from what we had, let's say, pre-pandemic. In our projects under construction, the average of our extra CapEx have not been so high. We have managed to, let's say, contain more or less the extra CapEx. That is been important, but not so much. For the projects for the second half, we will have just minor negotiations with contracts under operation. For next year projects, all these increasing CapEx have been already taken into account into the new approvals.
What we are expecting is to meet our targets or even, if things seems to be improving a little bit in commodity prices and so, to be even with some upsides for projects that will come next year.
Thank you. Okay, next question is from Arthur Sitbon at Morgan Stanley, and he asks: Whether the EUR 1.36 billion of EBITDA for 2022, which would imply a second half 2022 EBITDA down year-over-year, is possible or likely, or do we find it too conservative? Let me just say that we do not comment on consensus. If I may, I would just say that, yes, we believe it's conservative. There is another question which I'm not sure I understand, but then I pass it on to Rafa. Role of Acciona Energía in the current energy crisis in Europe?
Well, our role is that we are the very clear example of and the demonstration of the correct solution for the energy crisis in Europe. We are demonstrating that we can't depend on gas or fossil fuels that we don't have, and we are demonstrating that the only solution for the future in Europe is doing more and more and more renewables without losing time as we did in the past.
Indeed. Yes, I mean, there is a growing role for Acciona and Acciona likes in this part of the world and everywhere else. The current emissions problems, cost problems, supply problems, all the variables that are affecting the energy sector are particularly enhanced by the independence, the lack of supply in Europe and the energy independence need, the need to enhance our energy independence in Europe. Naturally, the role of Acciona and Acciona likes in Europe is key, is essential. Let me see if we have any more questions. I don't think there are any more questions.
With that, I thank you on behalf of the team and Acciona, my own, very much for your presence in this results presentation, and we look forward to seeing you in the next one. Thank you very much. Goodbye.