French utility Engie has purchased a portfolio of five solar projects in Brazil from US-headquartered clean energy firm Atlas Renewable Energy, with a combined capacity of 545MWac.
The portfolio consists of the Juazeiro, Sao Pedro, Sol do Futuro, Sertao Solar and Lar do Sol projects, in the eastern Brazilian states of Bahia, Ceara and Minas Gerais. Engie values the deal at €618 million (US$659 million), and noted that the projects, which are currently in commercial operation, will add to the company’s 10GW portfolio of renewable power projects in the country.
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“The opportunistic acquisition of operating assets has become an attractive option for efficiently expanding Engie businesses, at this time in the market, benefiting from synergies with existing operations,” said Paulo Almirante, Engie senior executive vice president of renewables, energy management and nuclear.
“This tuck-in transaction also contributes to our ambition to reach 50 GW of installed renewable capacity by 2025 and 80 GW by 2030.”
Atlas also announced that it would use the funds raised from the sale to “reinvest in developing new renewable projects” in Brazil. The company already has two PV projects under construction in Minas Gerais, and has already announced a joint project with Colombian firm Isagen to develop 1GW of new solar projects in Colombia.
The news follows the start of commercial operations at Engie’s 181MW Antofagasta solar project in Chile, its largest in the country, as it looks to expand its operations in South America. In December 2022, the company announced plans to build a 638MWh energy storage system in Chile, which would be the largest by capacity in Latin America, and Engie plans to replace its coal-fired power plants in the country with a 2GW renewable portfolio by 2025.
In January this year, Global Energy Monitor reported that Latin America and the Caribbean had the third-largest solar pipeline under construction in the world, with 19.4GW of projects under development. This capacity of new projects was four-fold greater than the capacity under development in Europe, and almost seven-fold greater than the capacity under construction in India, raising optimism about the future of the Latin American solar sector.