This is the other file of Solaria . I am joined today by Arturo Diaz-Tejeiro Larrañaga, our Chief Executive Officer. During this call, we'll discuss our business outlook and make forward-looking statements. These comments are based on our prediction and expectation as of today. During this presentation, we'll begin with an overview of the result and main highlights and main developments during this period given by our CEO, Arturo. Following this, we will move on to the Q&A session. I would also like to highlight that you have to submit all your questions via the web. Thank you very much again, and I will now hand over the word to Arturo.
Thank you, David, and thank you to everyone joining this conference call. Like always, I will move extremely fast around the slides and the presentation, and we will go to the Q&A part. Of course, in the first half, 2025, we have increased significantly exponentially. Our net profits will have grown close to 100%. That is a record in the history of the company. We have installed, this is something significant because you know that during the last two years, we have done enormous efforts in order to connect new installations. We have connected during this quarter 300 MW. That is one of our key targets for this year. We have connected during this quarter 300 MW. From an operational point of view, our business is running great because we closed, as you know, during this first half, a great deal with Stonepeak for Generia.
Our infrastructure business is running great. We have included numbers in this quarter that come from our infrastructure division. Generation is going in a good situation, even with the low prices situation that we are living in Spain. We maintain the same level. If you compare the first half with the last year, we maintain the same level of generation. That is good because we haven't included new assets during the first half. The good point is that finally, we have connected 300 MW. Hopefully, during this quarter and next quarter, we are going to complete 3 GW of capacity constructed and connected to the grid. That will be a great success for the company. Points or key points of this presentation. All the market is talking about batteries and new business that is growing in Europe, especially in Spain around batteries. Solaria absolutely will be there.
During our Investor Day, we will give a great business update about batteries business. My comment about batteries is we are the key player today in Spain with batteries under construction that will be connected to the grid during October. For our Investor Day, we will have batteries connected to the grid. This is a great success for the company because we will be able to play the game of battery in Spain and with high volume of batteries connected to the grid. We will talk about our new division of data centers during the Investor Day. It is something that we are extremely excited around data center business and the growth of this business. Today, first half presentation numbers. In order to go directly to the numbers, growth, 3 GW installed that we will finish for the end of this year.
We are going to finish this year with 3 GW of capacity connected to the grid. It's a great success. Probably from a volume point of view, Solaria will be the leader from a volume point of view in the Iberian region of solar photovoltaic technology connected to the grid. 3 GW, 3,000 MW connected to the grid. Under construction, today we have around 4.4 GW of capacity connected to the grid or under construction. We have added new developments to our under construction pipeline, Oliva, Mantia, Villav iciosa, large installations that will be constructed during 2025, 2026, and 2027. That will add 1.4 GW of additional capacity during 2026 and first half of 2027. It's significant because it's an enormous volume of megawatts that includes not only solar, includes PES, includes batteries that jointly is a great combination from a business point of view.
Solar with batteries that will optimize the price of electricity. Batteries, as I have mentioned, three important points around battery business. I could say, like in the solar technology, that Solaria probably is the best in class from a CAPEX perspective, EUR 75,000 per megawatt hour, all connected. That is a record from a CAPEX perspective view. As I have mentioned, during October, we are going to connect our first battery to the grid. For the Investor Day, we will have batteries functioning connected to the grid. It's a great success for us. It's something that changed completely our history because we are going to optimize the price of electricity. We could enter at night or in the afternoon with, you know, the situation, especially in Spain, high price of electricity in the afternoon at night. We could obtain enormous profits associated to these batteries.
We are going to install more, absolutely. We are going to invest more in batteries. We are developing an enormous volume of batteries globally in Spain, not only in Spain. We have included in this presentation slides associated with Italy, Germany, with the United Kingdom, but obviously focusing on Spain, we have an enormous volume of megawatts per hour of batteries that will enter during 2025, 2026. We will be the leader in the short term in batteries in Spain. This is extremely important. Short term, batteries are a great business today. We need to use this opportunity, and timing is critical. You need to be the first, and you need to be the most efficient.
Not only batteries, wind, data centers, the global business plan of Solaria , the global idea of Solaria is a global energy player that supplies solar electricity, wind electricity that has demand that comes from data centers and that has demand that comes from batteries. It is a global solution for customers that includes technology of generation and technologies of demand. Globally in Europe, not only in Spain, focusing on several countries of Europe: Spain, Italy, Portugal, Germany, United Kingdom. Generia, you know that two years ago sounded like a dream. Generia land a company. Today it's a real company that is functioning and that will give to all of our shareholders a strong success because, as you know, we have got a great agreement with Stonepeak. It's functioning. We are developing the pipeline of Generia. We are executing, and we are closing the acquisition of land.
It's the beginning. Obviously, the plan is extremely ambitious. During 2025, 2026, 2027, you will see a lot of deals associated with Generia. Obviously, if you want to construct all of these assets, if you want to construct new batteries, new data centers, or whatever, you need financing, good financing terms. This is a good example. Like all the quarters, we show to the market that we have a strong capacity to raise money, to raise project finance debt with our banks and partners. We have closed a, presently, we have closed a new deal with Sabadell Bank, 175 MW of solar photovoltaic energy capacity. The key points of this deal are probably 22 years, close to EUR 100 million of debt. That is a global CAPEX of EUR 0.50 something, and the link with a 70 MW PPA data center project.
We will extend, and we will give more information during the Investor Day. In our case, this is something signed, real, and that is functioning now. We have under construction today the project associated with this deal. Europe, we have included several slides because usually people say Solaria is extremely focused in Spain. You are not out of Spain. It's not the truth. Spain today is obviously our key market in Europe, but we don't forget other countries that are critical for us, that are going to grow around batteries, data centers, solar, and wind. Italy. In Italy, we have made a strong effort during the last years, and I think that today we have a really good pipeline. Hopefully, before the end of this year, we will receive final authorization for close to 1 GW.
That is a great success because to start with 1 GW will be great for us. It's a diversification of our business. In my mind, the perfect photo for the company should be to stay in Spain with global volume, but to maintain good volume in Italy, in Portugal, in Germany, and to install generation in these three countries. It's in Italy, Portugal, and Germany. The Italian business is in a good situation today. Probably as I have explained for the full year's presentation, we will give an update with 1 GW ready to start with the construction. It's great. At the same time, we are developing batteries. We are developing data centers. Germany is the same. In Germany, we are more focused in generation, especially in solar and some applications of wind, but especially in solar. It's the beginning. We have a good amount of megawatts.
In my mind, it's easier than Italy or Spain. It's a different market, really professional, really mature market. I think that in the past, we had a strong success in solar in Germany, and we are going to replicate. Today, we have more than 500 MW in a good situation, fully authorized. We will start construction soon, probably in 2026. Portugal, this is a real global project. As you know, we have assets functioning today in Portugal. We have done several projects in the last years in Portugal with great success. In Portugal, we have fully authorized a global project with close to 500 MW of solar and close to 200 MW of wind. We are waiting for the final substation that should be done or that depends on government, of the national agency, and depends on government. Hopefully, we could start with the construction in 2027.
From a permitting process point of view, it's fully complete. The key point here is that we depend on the connection infrastructure that should be constructed by REN. I think that 2027 is a conservative schedule for starting with the construction. In the U.K., we are not going to be involved in generation. We are going to be involved in other activities. Today, we are only talking about batteries, and we are only talking about data center. I talk about other activities, and I'm not including here all the activities that we are working on in the United Kingdom. Not in generation. We are not going to stay involved in generation. We are interested in other activities that we will explain to the market. Numbers I have mentioned, and I will move extremely fast. EBITDA, record of EBITDA EUR 140 million.
In order to give additional information to the market, as you remember, we gave a guideline for the year of EUR 245 million, EUR 255 million for the end of this year of EBITDA. I can say that we are extremely comfortable with this number. What does it mean? We have a strong visibility that we are going to accomplish with the guideline of EBITDA for 2025. During the Investor Day, the 17th of November, we will give guideline for next year's and global business plan for next year's. Production, we maintain levels of production. As I have explained at the beginning, we have maintained similar numbers from a generation point of view. A small reduction on production associated with less sun radiation, especially in the first half of this year. I can say that the third quarter was good from a radiation point of view and price. It's good.
Especially the second quarter of this year was not good from a radiation point of view. Small decrease associated with this solar radiation. Average selling price, even I could say I can say that it's better if you compare first half 2024 and first half 2025. Contracted merchant, 75% today is contracted, 25% is merchant. As we have explained, and it's not a surprise, we are going to maintain this mix. We are going to sign additional PPA contracts. We are going to maintain this proportion of 75% contracted, 25% merchant. EBITDA continues growing and is affected by three different activities: by infra business, by generation, and by Generia. I can say that, as I have explained at the beginning, it's around one-third per activity. All the activities are functioning great. Why I'm saying this? Because I have visibility of third quarter and I think numbers are functioning great.
As I have said previously, we have an extremely high level of comfort of our guideline of EBITDA. Cash, we maintain the same level of cash like always. As you know, we are not rich, but we continue making strong investments. We maintain our discipline around CAPEX. That is one of the key points of our strategy. We have a global CAPEX of less than EUR 0.38 per watt. That is probably best in class. In my mind, we are going to improve in the next quarters. I think that probably for the first quarter of 2026, we will achieve a record in CAPEX. When I talk about record, I think that the number is going to surprise the market. We are going to improve a lot, even our CAPEX. This is critical for us because, as you know, we are covering all of our CAPEX with project finance.
This is critical for us to be effective, not only in the construction of solar installation, in battery storage, in wind energy, in all of our applications. Of course, a bit of evolution is great. If you compare the last five years, it's impressive. It's not as we want to get because we want more, much more. We want to grow more. We want to be the leader. Unfortunately, during the last two years, we had delays in the construction. The good point today is that we are in the good moment connecting megawatts, and we are going to finish with all the megawatts under construction connected to the grid. It's great. It's part of our guideline of last year, and we are going to accomplish. Solaria transformation plan sounds ambitious, but we are ambitious as always.
On November 17th, we will present to the market our view about data centers, battery storage, where we are, where we'll be, and what we are going to do for financing all. It will be extremely interesting. You know, Solaria today is a key player in Europe, focused on solar , wind , data centers, and batteries . We will try to explain our global view of the market and where we are going to stay the next three years, and where we'll be the company in the next three years. Before entering the Q&A session, in order to give more information, we will be focused on the remuneration of the shareholders. We think that is something that we need to improve, and we need to stay focused there. We will continue acquiring shares. As you know, in the first quarter, we have announced a share buyback program.
We have today 2% of the shares of the company, and we are going to continue with the acquisition of shares at least until 10%. We are going to maintain this discipline, and we are going to execute. At the same time, in order to be fair with the market, understand this comment, but probably the company in the next days could sign impressive contracts that will give visibility to our business plan and to all the activities of the company. We will explain during the Investor Day of the 17th of November. Q&A, if you want.
Thank you, thank you, Arturo. I will now open for a Q&A session. Once again, thank you for your time. Just let us one minute. The first question comes from Fernando Garcia from RBC. Could we elaborate on the sentence, evaluating additional options to boost shareholder returns?
I have explained that we want to stay focused on the remuneration of shareholders. As I have mentioned, in the first quarter, we approved a share buyback program that we are executing. I have given the details, and we are executing. We have 2% of shares of the company, actually. About new remuneration or new options, we will discuss during the Investor Day, the 17th of November in London.
Next question from Fernando. You have many value creation avenues in solar, PV, batteries, DC, international expansion, and real estate, but you have less than EUR 50 million of cash position. What are your plans, such as partnerships, to avoid jeopardizing these growth optionalities?
I think that we have demonstrated during last years that even with not too much cash, that sometimes I recommend in the companies to maintain not too much cash because when you have too much cash, you spend a lot of money. This is my view that is not probably you are not agreeing with my view. In order to explain, we have demonstrated that the key point from a managing perspective, in my view, is to be efficient on CAPEX, not to spend too much money, and to be able to maintain a good CAPEX that should be covered with project finance. This is my obligation.
We have demonstrated to the market during the last years that we are able to construct 3 GW, that we are able to develop a pipeline globally in all Europe, not only in Spain, that we are able to construct and to acquire batteries, that we are able to acquire land, that we are able to acquire connection points for data centers and to acquire land for data centers. We haven't sold nothing and not increasing capital. This is a really good discipline that we have established inside the company. Our discipline will be maintained because it's the generation of value. You need to generate value to the shareholders, and it's my obligation. You have seen with the Generia deal, for example, that we are able to generate value and to generate cash position with joint ventures. I'm extremely satisfied with the joint venture closed with Stonepeak.
That is a key player in the market. It's a great joint venture that will give enormous profits to the shareholders of Solaria in the future. We have raised EUR 125 million for the acquisition of land. The valuation of the platform and the valuation of our pipeline and our capacity was good. I think that this kind of partnership, this kind of joint ventures are really good for Solaria. That gives cash, gives support in the growth, and recognizes the value of the platform and the value of our pipeline. It's something that we could repeat in data centers, we could repeat in battery storage, and we could repeat in other activities. In order to answer correctly the question, yes, we are open to sign and to close joint ventures for battery storage, for data centers. We are talking with players, and we are working on it.
Next question comes from Philippe Ourpatian from ODDO . Looking at slide six related to our operating and under construction asset, is the time frame of 6.2 GW dedicated to 2026 or later?
Operating and under construction, 3 GW will be connected to the grid by the end of this year. 1.4 GW is under construction. We will announce probably during October, November, but it's something that in my mind is completely solved. We will announce a project finance associated with Villav iciosa and other developments that we have included, that we have under construction, and we will cover with project finance. No problem. It's a deal closed, but we will announce during October, November. It's under construction, probably will be constructed during 2026 and 2027 connection.
We will add, especially in the third quarter and in the last quarter of this year, additional capacity to our construction pipeline that will be executed during 2026, first half of 2027. Now the innovation, if you want, or something new, is that we are going to include at the same time battery storage construction and battery storage construction schedule. Today, our business has, we have, we are seeing here an extension of our business. We are not going to talk only about gigawatts of solar capacity. We are going to talk about gigawatts of solar capacity, gigawatt-hours of battery storage, and wind energy. Solaria will be transforming into a global player, constructing battery storage, solar, and wind energy. As I have explained from the battery storage point of view for the Investor Day, we will have connected to the grid a number of batteries.
Next question is coming from Beatrice Gianola from Mediobanca. Do we expect to sign new PPAs? Which is the outlook in terms of price for PPA in the Iberian market? Can we elaborate on returns expected for investment in battery storage in Spain?
New PPAs, absolutely yes. We will sign new PPAs and we will announce to the market. Let me keep some information in my pocket. Let me surprise yourself and all the market in the next days, in the next weeks. We will talk. About batteries, I think that the return today in batteries in Spain is unbelievable. Why? Because if you see price at night and you see price of electricity, especially at 12:00 A.M. or 11:00 P.M., 10:00 P.M., it's crazy because today we are suffering price of electricity of EUR 140, EUR 150. If you see these numbers, in my mind, it's crazy.
The return of the battery is less than one year or one year and a half with the correct CAPEX. It's always the same. It depends on your CAPEX. In CAPEX, we announced a deal a few months ago with a price that we have renegotiated. We are improving prices of batteries. I think that we will see, like in module, strong improvements in price of batteries. From CAPEX perspective, I'm extremely quiet. I'm not nervous because we will be the key player from CAPEX perspective on batteries. The return, I think it will be great. Reasonable return, double digit. We always are looking for double digits. If we don't have double digits, we don't invest. If we don't see a high level of double digits, when I talk about high level, you know, in solar assets is 12, 13 project IRR.
In batteries, we are obligated to obtain more than this number.
Next question comes from Alexandre Roncier from Bank of America. Any update on the capacity market for Spain and timing?
It's true that the Spanish government is going to approve a capacity market. With the actual situation of prices, it's not necessary, but of course, welcome. If they approve, finally, it will be welcome. It's something that will improve the numbers around batteries. It's not only battery, the government is touching several points of the law. If they modify, I think that it's going to improve generation business. It's going to improve batteries business. Probably will improve globally to all the renewable energy market. You know, market, government, you depend on the government, require time. I know that they are working on it, but who knows if they are going to approve now or in October, November, whenever.
We want, I think that we need to move without any new law that could be approved. It's like for our numbers, we are not including this capacity market.
Next question coming from Fernando Laf uente from Alantra and Arthur Sitbon from Morgan Stanley regarding storage revenue. What will be the price strategy for the first battery connected? Will we sell the electricity merchant, secondary market? Arthur is also asking, can we break down some revenue source of the first batteries that we can connect to the grid this year?
We are studying all the proposals for batteries. We have some proposals of people that want to acquire our business, other people that want to make a joint venture with us and to participate, to give money, equity, and for the acquisition of the batteries and to recognize value in our platform.
This is probably the largest platform in Europe for batteries or the second one, I think, because from a private player had a great success in the United Kingdom. I think that probably Solaria in the stock market is a global player in Europe for batteries. We are studying all the options today for the batteries that we have under construction that will be connected to the grid in October. For the investor, they will be connected to the grid, our strategy is to go to the merchant market and to obtain strong profits in the next month. I think that it's an easy job today. In the future, it will be more sophisticated. Today is extremely simple business with the situation of price of electricity. I'm not saying that deals will be our long-term strategy.
I'm saying that we are going to use the exceptional situation of merchant price in the short term. We could sign a joint venture associated with batteries.
Next question is coming from Alberto Gandolfi from Goldman Sachs. Is the 1 GW of solar Villav iciosa, Oliva, Mantia, all permitted? If not, which permit do we have and when do we plan to receive all the authorization?
All permitted and under construction. We have explained the deal associated with Sabadell Bank that covers a small part and is associated with the solar PV asset of Oliva. It includes a data center of 75 MW. You will see the evolution of this, but it's under construction, fully permitted. Villav iciosa is in the same situation, fully permitted, under construction. We will announce the project finance deal in the short term, probably October or November. Probably October because it's done.
We will announce the bank that is going to stay with us in this project that includes Villav iciosa and other small projects that you have mentioned in your question.
Next question is coming from Temi from Barclays. There was an article recently on the grids in Spain being 83% saturated. Can we please confirm our latest secure grid connection on the generation side?
I think that we have a lot of grid connection secured on the generation side. We have a lot of grid connection secured for data centers. We have a lot of grid connection secured for batteries. We have a lot of grid connection permits for wind. From grid connection permitting point of view, we have had a great, great success. You know, because we have given all the information to the market during the last two years.
From generation for wind and solar, we have a lot of connection points. For data centers, we have close to 1.5 gigawatts and growing. Probably we are the key player in the Iberian region. I'm talking about Iberia all the time. I think that we should start to talk about Europe because it's not only associated with Spain. Spain today sounds good. I think that at the end of this year, we will give more visibility in other countries. We are a global platform in Europe. Spain, obviously, we have, I think we are probably the king from connection point of view.
Last question comes from Jorge Alonso from Bernstein. What is our view on the Spanish market if battery storage systems are massively adopted? How will the power price look like?
Projection of power price is difficult.
The projection of the situation of battery storage systems in the long term is difficult. We have lived a lot of bubbles around all the different businesses associated with renewables in Spain. We will see the evolution. In batteries, in my mind, you need to be the first. You need to connect. Not to talk. You need to connect. The key point here, the key point today over the table is that we are going to stay in London the 17th of November with batteries connected to the grid. I will talk about the numbers and the EBITDA that we are receiving in real time. This is something that is valued. Our effort is focused today on this: connection, construction of new batteries. In the long term, if we suffer a massive volume of new installation of batteries, we will see.
Battery is something that should have a strong return because if you don't have a strong return, you could have troubles in the long term. Our view is focused on CAPEX, efficiency, and to be the first. This is our view, to be the first to construct with the best CAPEX and to be extremely efficient in order to maximize value. We will see evolution. Power price and power prices of electricity depend on demand. It depends on demand. This is a question associated especially with demand. Data centers, electrical vehicles, industrial demand is growing. During this year, we have seen that the demand is growing. The electrical demand is growing. It's not in a bad situation. It's better than a few years ago. It's growing. It probably could grow a lot if Europe entered in the data center business, for example.
Not only focus on data centers in the industrial part, we need to develop industry. You receive the message from my colleagues from the utilities, from Mendoza, Iberdrola, and Naturgy. They receive massive questions of industrial players that want to get connection points on the grid because they want to receive electricity, renewable energy, electricity. Spain has a strong advantage from a price point of view. We have a cheap price of electricity, and it's an enormous advantage for the industry. I'm completely sure that the situation will improve in the next years. It's not only the demand come. When I talk about industry, I talk about hydrogen technology. Hydrogen is going to make enormous consumption of electricity. I'm talking about new industries. I think that we are optimistic about the future price of electricity in Europe.
Spain, Portugal, Italy, and all the countries of Europe, it's like demand is going to answer, is answering, and we will see a strong demand in the future.
Thank you very much for being part of this conference call. Our Investor Relations team, David, will be available for any additional information that you may require. Hopefully, I hope to see you, all of you, in London the 17th of November with a lot of surprises and news and business plans for the future and a lot of renewable energies. We will see you in London. Thank you very much.