Danish renewable power developer Eurowind Energy has signed a shares purchase agreement for a 55MW solar portfolio, currently under construction in Portugal.
The portfolio will consist of 11 PV projects, each with a capacity of 5MW, with the majority collected in clusters of three projects each. All of the projects are located in the Aveiro district in northwest Portugal, and upon completion, these projects will almost double Eurowind’s operating PV capacity in the country, which will approach 120MW.
Unlock unlimited access for 12 whole months of distinctive global analysis
Photovoltaics International is now included.
- Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments
- In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures
- Unlimited digital access to the PV Tech Power journal catalogue
- Unlimited digital access to the Photovoltaics International journal catalogue
- Access to more than 1,000 technical papers
- Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual
Or continue reading this article for free
Portuguese company Insun is providing development work at the projects, and Eurowind expects all of them to reach the ready-to-build stage before the second quarter of next year. The deal will only be finalised once the first cluster of three projects reaches the ready-to-build stage, but Eurowind’s management is optimistic that this milestone will be reached by the end of this year.
“The acquisition of the Aveiro PV projects is the result of hard work for the most part of one year, between our team and Insun,” said Eurowind country manager for Portugal Joaquim Pinto. “I’m glad that we had a long but smooth negotiation process thanks to both parties’ large experience in these kinds of deals. I’m thrilled about closing on this transaction and kicking off the construction of these projects within the end of this year.”
Eurowind’s project footprint in Portugal includes the 22MW Triana project, which started commercial operation in 2022. While Eurowind has not specified the technical details of its latest acquisition, the operator announced that it had signed a deal to acquire bifacial modules from Chinese manufacturing giant LONGi for the Triana project in 2023.
The renewable power sector has been growing consistently in Portugal in recent years, with grid operator Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) noting that clean power accounted for 61% of the country’s energy consumption in 2023. However, wind continues to account for the majority of its clean energy production, and the solar sector will have to grow rapidly, in order to meet the government’s 2030 targets.
In the latest draft of its National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), the government is aiming for installed solar capacity to reach 8.4GW by the end of next year, and then grow considerably to reach 20.4GW by the end of the decade.
Portuguese utility EDP Renováveis has been one of the most active companies in this space, having already commissioned a solar-plus-wind hybrid project, and the largest solar project in its portfolio, in Portugal this year.