German solar developer and distributor BayWa r.e has sold a 64.4MWp solar farm in Witnica, Poland to Irish independent power producer (IPP) Alternus Energy Group for an undisclosed amount.
Completed earlier this year and now connected to the grid, the project is Poland’s first subsidy-free, power purchase agreement (PPA)-backed commercial scale solar install, according to BayWa r.e. The company declined to disclose the amount the plant was sold for after a request from PV Tech.
Witnica lies close to the German border between Poznan and Berlin and BayWa r.e will continue to supply O&M services to the site. The company already has a solar pipeline of 600MWp across Poland and aims to increase this to 1.1GW by 2026. It is also on track to reach 1.1GW of solar and wind projects in 2021.
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“The sale to Alternus Energy aligns well with our goal of developing and selling additional solar capacity in Poland in future years and further highlights the attractiveness of renewable energy assets to investors,” said Benedikt Ortmann, global director of solar projects at BayWa r.e.
Meanwhile, Alternus currently has an operating portfolio of 24 projects across Poland, Romania, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany totalling 130MWp. It aims to own and operated more than 3.5GW of solar by the end of 2025.
Speaking on its Polish acquisition, Alternus chairman and CEO Vincent Browne said: “We have plans for further expansion within the country over the next 12 months and hope to share updates on that shortly.”
In June, Alternus acquired a 60% stake in solar developer Unisun Energy, adding 250MW of PV projects in the Netherlands at various stages of development to its portfolio.
Central and Eastern Europe now represents a huge opportunity for solar companies, with markets in Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, totally 6GW already. To learn more about utility-scale solar in this region, sign up to Solar Media’s Large Scale Solar Central and Eastern Europe (LSS CEE) event from 16-17 November in Warsaw, Poland which will bring together policy-makers, offtakers, developers, investors, lenders and other market players to understand the latest regulatory frameworks, how pipelines will develop and to win business. A link to the event can be found here.
