German renewable energy group Baywa r.e has sold 127MW worth of French solar PV assets to two other energy asset managers.
The capacity is spread across three commissioned projects: the 40MWp Greenberry, 40MW Fontenet 3 and the 47MW Amance projects. The first two have been sold to UK energy company Octopus Energy’s power generation arm and the latter has been sold to Commerz Real, a German renewables and real estate asset management.
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Baywa r.e said all of the projects were built on abandoned or low-quality land. The Greenberry and Fontenet 3 projects are situated on former military land in Central and South-West France and form part of a larger, 136MW solar PV energy hub across former military bases.
The Amance project will be constructed on 42 hectares of land with “poor soil quality” thanks to intensive farming. The company claims that through the construction of the solar project, the land “will be upgraded in terms of environmental protection and biodiversity and allow an extensive agricultural use through sheep grazing.”
Last month, the investment platform Energy Infrastructure Partners (EIP) acquired a majority stake in Baywa r.e. following weakened results from the company’s renewable power division. EIP said that extending its ownership over Baywa r.e (it previously held a 49% minority stake) would enable the company to continue to operate independently and that it would refocus on its “core markets”.
Baywa r.e has focused on selling renewable energy assets over the last year. In its announcement of these French deals it said it had sold 1.5GW of wind, solar, and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects through 2024 until now. Its H1 2024 financial results revealed uncertainties over the value of its assets, which had fallen in value by €500 million (US$544 million) from Q1 2023 to Q1 2024.
