A round-up of a number of European project stories from this week, including METLEN’s involvement in an offtake deal in Italy, as part of the government’s Energy Release 2.0 programme; European Energy’s securing of finance to add storage to an operational Danish solar project; and TSE’s acquisition of four French solar PV projects in various stages of development.
METLEN, Acciaieria Arvedi and GSE sign 170MW offtake agreement in Italy
Greek energy and mining company METLEN has signed an agreement with Italian steel producer Acciaieria Arvedi to participate in Italy’s Energy Release 2.0 programme.
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The programme, implemented late last year by state-owned energy company Gestore Servizi Energetici (GSE), aims to include offtakers with high energy demand, such as steel producers, in the process for building new renewable energy capacity to meet this energy demand. The programme consists of mechanisms such as the FERX auction, and saw the award of over 7GW of new solar PV capacity in December.
As part of the latest arrangement, METLEN will commission 170MW of new solar PV capacity in Italy over the next three years, and receive a fixed remuneration of €65/MWh (US$77.4/MWh) from GSE. Acciaieria Arvedi will function as the offtaker for this new power generation, acquiring around 2.4TWh of generation over the course of the agreement.
The fixed prices involved in the deal will help those involved sidestep a general lack of pricing consistency and consensus in European offtake deals, according to market analyst Pexapark.
The deal also follows discussions held last week at Solar Media’s Solar Finance & Investment Europe event in London, where delegates suggested that the increasingly complexity of the European renewable finance sector means that the conventional power purchase agreement (PPA) may no longer be fit for purpose, and that more sophisticated, multi-party offtake agreements, such as the Energy Release 2.0 programme, could be more suited to the current financial landscape of European renewables.
European Energy secures finance for battery storage co-location in Denmark
Danish independent power producer (IPP) European Energy has secured €64.5 million (US$76.8 million) in finance to support the development of the Kvosted hybrid energy project.
The facility consists of a 100MW operational solar array co-located with a 50MW/200MWh battery energy storage system (BESS), and is located in the Viborg municipality of Denmark. The solar component of the facility began operations in 2022, with the BESS element added this month, and follows European Energy’s divestment from a solar-plus-storage project in Latvia of comparable size last year, as it looked to raise money for new investments.
The eventual financing package consists of debt structures provided by Danish bank Ringkjøbing Landbobank and the Nordic Investment Bank, which provided €43 million and €21.5 million, respectively. European Energy also noted that the InvestEU programme provided additional “support”, but did not specify a figure for this involvement.
“We see BESS technology as a crucial tool for managing imbalances between the production of green energy and electricity consumption—and thus as an important step towards achieving Denmark’s climate targets,” said Jørn Nielsen, Ringkjøbing Landbobank general manager.
TSE acquires 108MW of French solar capacity
French independent power producer (IPP) TSE has acquired 108MW of operational and under-construction solar capacity in France.
The acquisition consists of four separate deals. Two comprise the Marville and Oxelaere solar PV projects, currently in operation with a combined capacity of 95MW, from Siloé Infrastructures, in which TSE already had shares. The other two deals include two projects currently in the ready-to-build phase in New Aquitaine and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, with a combined capacity of 13MW.
“These acquisitions are fully in line with TSE’s strategy to position itself as a platform for consolidating the French photovoltaic sector,” said TSE president Mathieu Debonnet. “By integrating operating assets and ready-to-build projects into its portfolio, TSE generates synergies with the power plants developed in-house by its teams, both technically and operationally.”
The news follows TSE’s announcement of plans to build a 500MW agrivoltaics (agriPV) portfolio on cooperatively-owned French farmland over the next decade.
