EDP Renováveis Posts a 36% Q1 Profit Jump to €70 Million on a US-Led Recovery — Capex Cut Almost in Half to €324 Million as Stilwell Steers a Tighter 2026 Capacity Year
EDPR's Q1 2026 results land at €70 million net profit, up 36%, with €489 million recurring EBITDA and 20.5 GW of installed capacity. The number behind the headline is the capex cut — investment falls roughly 50% from €610M to €324M as the group reweights toward US growth at lower opex.
EDP Renováveis filed its first-quarter 2026 results with the CMVM this morning, 6 May 2026. Net profit lands at €70 million, up 36% year-on-year. Recurring net profit — the cleaner read for the renewables business — comes in at €71 million, up 9%. Recurring EBITDA grows 2% to €489 million. Revenue declines 7% to €711 million, with electricity sales down 5% to €591 million on a 9% drop in the average realised price to €52 per megawatt-hour.
The number that matters most to the equity story is on the capital-allocation line. Capex falls roughly 47%, from €610 million in Q1 2025 to €324 million in Q1 2026. The reweighting is global rather than disciplinary: investment in the United States drops 49%, in Asia-Pacific 41% and in Europe 27%. The group runs a tighter capital year while letting prior-vintage assets generate.
Capacity, Generation and the US Tilt
Installed capacity ends the quarter at 20,485 megawatts, with 20.5 GW total. Net additions over the trailing twelve months are 1.2 GW, distributed as 1 GW in the United States, 124 MW in South America and 120 MW in Asia-Pacific. The pipeline under construction is 1.56 GW: 799 MW in the US and 648 MW in Europe. Onshore wind still anchors the portfolio at 64% of capacity, with solar at 30% and offshore at 3%. Generation reaches 11,299 GWh in the quarter, up 3% on Q1 2025, with the asset-rotation channel netting -0.9 GW over the comparable period.
The geographic pull continues to favour North America. EDPR has been re-stating the US as the highest-return regulated-PPA market in its core opportunity set since the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Q1 generation and addition mix shows that re-statement working through the operating numbers. The drag-points are European pricing — already pre-flagged in the lower-quotes commentary — and the foreign-exchange translation: ex-currency, EBITDA growth would have been 10% rather than 2%.
Cost Discipline and Debt
Recurring operating expenses fall 11% in the quarter, the steepest single-quarter cost reduction in recent memory for the group. Net debt sits at €8.4 billion, with cost-of-debt down 10% to €113 million as the older fixed-rate stack rolls off and the green-debt instruments price into a friendlier curve. The combination of an 11% opex cut and a 10% finance-cost cut explains how a quarter with 7% lower revenue still delivers 9% recurring profit growth.
The capex cut, the opex cut and the lower finance-cost line together support the 2026 guidance the group has been signalling since the November capital markets day: a year of digestion rather than expansion, with a focus on completing the US construction queue and rotating mature European assets into new build. The 2-GW solar-plus-battery additions over the trailing twelve months put the portfolio's storage layer on track for the late-decade flexibility-revenue uplift, even if the headline GW additions for 2026 will look modest.
What This Means for Expat Readers
For foreign-resident investors holding EDP, EDPR or the broader PSI utilities cluster, the Q1 print confirms three things. First, the US story is intact and is doing the operating-leverage work that justifies the capital it has absorbed. Second, European pricing weakness has not yet flipped, but the group is treating it with cost discipline rather than capacity additions. Third, the dividend-coverage story is comfortable: €70 million reported plus a falling capex line strengthens free-cash flow from a base that already covered the trailing payout. The stock opened down 0.28% at €14.16 — a muted reaction reading as already priced in.
