Utility giant Engie has signed a 15-year renewable energy power purchase agreement (PPA) with tech giant Apple in Italy.
Under the agreement, the utility will build several wind farms and two agrivoltaics (agriPV) plants with a combined capacity of 173MW, of which the agriPV projects will comprise 88MW.
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All the projects have already been authorised and will be located in the south of Italy, where most of the country’s utility-scale solar is installed.
The portfolio of solar PV and wind projects is forecast to be operational between 2026 and 2027.
Once operational, Apple will offtake 80% of the energy generated from the 173MW renewable energy portfolio, while the remaining 20% will be injected into the grid.
The fact that the two solar PV projects will be agriPV is of significance, considering the complexities of developing such projects (subscription required) in Italy, and how the government aimed to ban ground-mounted agriPV projects last year. The legality of that ban was questioned by an Italian court in May of this year.
Technology companies such as Apple have been one of the main drivers for the growth of solar PV in Europe and the US in the past few years. Earlier this month, Apple unveiled a US$600 million investment that would support the construction of 650MW of renewable energy across Europe.
This latest offtake agreement will help Engie further increase its operational renewable energy capacity in Italy, where it currently has a portfolio of 18 solar PV projects either operational or under construction for a combined capacity of 250MW.
Utility-scale solar has seen a rise in recent months and has been the driving growth of solar PV in Italy last year, as residential solar declined by 21% on a yearly basis. During the summer, the country surpassed 40GW of cumulative installed solar PV.
