Enel near deal to sell Russian assets, sees Ukraine crisis boosting renewables -CEO

Starace said the company was not yet ready to announce any details of the potential deal or identify the potential buyer. The fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine also has forced Europe to look for natural gas from other sources, Starace said, but that the focus on increasing fossil fuel supply to the region was just temporary.

Italian energy company Enel is close to a deal to sell its assets in Russia, and sees the market turmoil caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a long-term boost for Europe's renewable energy industry, Chief Executive Francesco Starace said on Wednesday.

“I think we are close to a final solution to that,” Starace, speaking at the Reuters Events Global Energy Transition 2022 conference in New York, said of the potential deal for its Russian assets. “A few more weeks and we should be there.” Enel has two wind farms and three gas-fired power plants in Russia and had announced in March it was exploring options for those assets after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Starace said the company was not yet ready to announce any details of the potential deal or identify the potential buyer.

The fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine also has forced Europe to look for natural gas from other sources, Starace said, but that the focus on increasing fossil fuel supply to the region was just temporary. “This is just a surviving tool to get out of this period of inflation," he said.

Longer-term, he said, the Ukraine crisis would help boost Europe's transition away from fossil fuels by demonstrating how dangerous it can be to rely on foreign supply. "The real trend, as a consequence of the crisis in Ukraine, is we will see an acceleration in the renewable energy space,” he said, pointing out that sources like wind and solar can be tapped domestically in European countries and abroad.

Starace said the Ukraine crisis would not effect Enel's own targets of exiting coal by 2027 and natural gas by 2040.