UK-headquartered Cero Generation, a subsidiary of the Green Investment Group, has purchased Univergy Solar’s 50% stake in Nara Solar, taking full ownership of the Spanish solar developer.
Cero and Univergy launched Nara Solar as a joint venture in 2019, with each company owning 50%. Nara Solar initially developed a portfolio of solar projects with a combined capacity of 700MW owned by Univergy, and the company now owns 2GW of solar projects under construction and in development across Spain, France and the Netherlands.
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This portfolio will now be owned entirely by Cero, which is eager to expand its renewable power facilities in Europe.
“We are delighted to welcome Nara Solar fully into Cero, having worked with the brilliant team at Univergy to create this thriving platform, and seeing it go from strength to strength since its launch in 2019,” said Cero CEO Marta Martinez Queimadelos.
“This transaction is an important achievement for Cero, reflecting our prominent role in the European renewables market, and it enables us to continue to grow our sizeable pipeline and portfolio.”
European companies have made considerable progress in expanding the continent’s solar power capacity in recent years. According to SolarPower Europe, developers installed 41.4GW of new solar capacity in Europe in 2022, up from the 28.1GW added in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 47%.
The think tank expects solar to dominate Europe’s energy mix in the long-term, expecting solar to account for between 48-64% of European power generation by 2050, depending on how comprehensively the continent commits to decarbonisation. While neither Cero nor Nara Solar announced if the deal would affect their day-to-day operations, leaders at both companies are eager about the future of the firms.
“We’ve always had great ambitions for Nara Solar and now we are excited to step into this next phase, bolstering our expertise and extending our reach as part of the Cero group,” said Nara Solar CEO Yago Acon. “We’re joining a company that is leading the solar transition across Europe, allowing us to grow and deliver more impactful clean energy projects.”
The news is Cero’s latest investment into its European solar portfolio, following its appointment of Ameresco Energy Hellas to operate as the engineering, procurement and construction firm for its 100MW Delfini project in Greece.