The average price of a power purchase agreement (PPA) signed in Europe in February fell 6.4% from the previous month, as Europe’s energy trading space begins what has been called the “big repricing”.
This is according to Swiss market intelligence firm Pexapark and its latest figures on European renewable energy trading, which put the average price of a PPA signed in Europe at €42.7/MWh.
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According to Pexapark, the most significant change in prices came in Italy, which fell by 11.4% month-on-month, ahead of a 10.9% decline in Great Britain. None of the regions tracked by Pexapark showed an increase in average prices from January to February, with the smallest decline reported in Germany at 1.3%.
Simultaneously, deal activity increased “substantially”, with 30 PPAs signed for a total of 2.2GW of capacity, which is the most capacity contracted in a month since February 2024. The report also notes that around one-third of PPAs announced cover operational assets, due to “a widening gap between buyer and seller price expectations”, which has dissuaded offtake agreements for new-build projects rather than ones in operation.
Pexapark also reported that there were 14 deals for battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Europe, covering 1.2GW, which the analyst described as an “acceleration” over the pace of previous dealmaking. There was a battery component to the largest renewable energy deal by capacity—a 40-year deal signed between Merlin Properties and Solaria Energies for a 426MW solar PV project in Spain—with a separate flexible purchase agreement (FPA) covering ten years signed for 600MWh of BESS.
This reflects growing appetite for solar-plus-storage deals in Europe; at this year’s Solar Finance & Investment Europe event, hosted by PV Tech publisher Solar Media in London, Sunly CEO Priit Lepasepp put it simply: “hybridise or die”.
Pexapark attributed these price changes to lower realised capture factors, alongside new “calibration” of fair PPA prices, which could set the tone for the rest of the year’s dealmaking. In its 2026 market outlook, the market intelligence firm said that the growing threat of curtailment as more renewable energy capacity is deployed, alongside market uncertainty driven by policies hostile to renewables in the US, means that many of the market fundamentals that have underpinned renewable energy investment decisions need to be reconsidered.
When the report was published, Pexapark COO Luca Pedretti said that the emphasis in dealmaking has shifted “from asset-centric to revenue-centric,” and this may explain the high deal volumes and low offtake prices, reported in Europe in February; investors remain keen to back renewable energy projects, but only at a price that they consider reasonable.
Leaders in the European solar sector are turning their attention to this year’s SolarPlus Europe event, to be held in Italy on 15-16 April by PV Tech publisher Solar Media. Information about the event, including the full agenda and options to purchase tickets are available on the official website.
