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The result would be a joint venture with a combined 1.3GW of renewables online or under construction, mostly from wind power.

Observers believe the move to be the prelude to the stock market debut of renewables affiliate, Enel Green Power. The Italian utility’s international renewables holding company, created in 2008 with a view to an eventual floatation—similar to its Spanish and Portuguese counter parts, Iberdrola Renovables and EDP Renováveis, respectively.

The same sources maintain Enel Green Power would own around 5GW of clean energy capacity following a merger of Endesa's renewables assets.

The plans were leaked to numerous Spanish press offices after Enel formally communicated its intention to Spanish gas and electricity utility, Gas Natural.

Gas Natural owns the other half of Enel’s Spanish renewables joint venture Eufer. None of the companies involved was prepared to comment in detail on the reports. However, Enel did tell the Spanish stock market regulator, Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), it was "searching synergies" among its renewables ventures but had made "no definitive decision" on the matter.

Enel controls 92% of Endesa, after acquiring last year the 25% stake owned by Spain’s Acciona, a global renewables major. Acciona went off with most of Endesa’s renewables assets, leaving just 804MW.

Enel’s communiqué with Gas Natural reportedly pitched the segregation of both company’s assets within the Eufer joint venture, which operates 862MW from wind.

Press sources claiming inside knowledge says Enel wants to buy Gas Natural’s share of Eufer. That does not seem far-fetched. Public declaration in recent months by directors of Gas Natural’s core businesses of gas supply and combined cycle gas plant operations have been increasingly and unequivocally anti-wind, slating wind power as excessively costly.