French private equity firm Ardian Clean Energy Evergreen Fund (ACEEF) has bought 117 solar PV plants, worth 116MW of total capacity in several locations in Italy.
With a 100% stake, ACEEF has acquired the projects from Italian renewables company E2E. The plants have been in operation for over ten years and will support ACEEF’s Italian portfolio, which now holds 400MW of wind, solar, hydro and biogas assets in operation and more than 400MW of assets under development. The assets are being managed by ACEEF’s Italian platform company InEnergy.
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London-headquartered firm E2E has been collaborating with ACEEF for the past three years to enhance the operational efficiency of the portfolio, achieving average annual revenues of over €630,000 (US$680,000) per MW for the incentivised plants.
This transaction aligns with ACEEF’s strategy of investing in brownfield renewable assets, offering a diversified portfolio due to the assets’ strategic locations across Italy.
Highlighting ACEEF’s strategy, Federico Gotti Tedeschi, managing director infrastructure at ACEEF said that this acquisition will “complement their existing wind and hydro portfolio”. The acquisition comes as Italy’s solar PV installations keep soaring year after year. For the third year in a row, the country added more than 2GW of solar PV, with 6.8GW in 2024, up by 30% from the previous year. Utility-scale solar projects have soared in 2024 with a 163% increase from 2023, while residential solar declined by 21% due to the end of the Superbonus scheme.
Furthermore, he added that ACEEF will use its digital tool OPTA to “improve the performance of the portfolio and expand, leveraging on the industrial capabilities of its Italian platform InEnergy”.
The private equity firm continues to expand its portfolio in Europe through acquisitions after it reached an agreement to acquire French independent power producer Akuo in March 2025. With a presence across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, Akuo brought a 1.9GW portfolio of solar, wind, and energy storage assets either operational or under construction, along with a development pipeline exceeding 12GW.
Through this acquisition, Ardian aimed to accelerate Akuo’s growth and support its ambition to reach 5GW of operational capacity by 2030. The investment also provided Akuo with the financial aid to advance projects in emerging areas such as agrivoltaics and floating solar.
