French renewables firm GreenYellow has bought Grow Energy Management (GEM), acquiring its 120MW portfolio of PV projects in Portugal and Poland.
The portfolio consists of projects currently in operation and under development and includes a 100MW rooftop solar portfolio currently under construction at buildings belonging to Polish supermarket chain Biedronka. GEM originally signed a deal to install the panels at 2,000 Biedronka stores in 2022, aiming to complete construction in 2025, and GreenYellow will continue this work.
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The transaction includes a swap of shares between GreenYellow Portugal and GEM, and GreenYellow noted that the new company will continue to “develop the group’s flagship offers,” such as the Biedronka rooftop portfolio.
“GreenYellow is the ideal partner for the next stage of our growth, bringing both the financial capacity and technical expertise to accelerate our development to provide the best decentralised solar energy production and energy efficiency solutions for our customers at affordable and sustainable prices, helping to reduce carbon emissions and promoting a cleaner and more sustainable future,” said Miguel Almeida Henriques, GEM CEO and co-CEO of GreenYellow Portugal.
Almeida Henriques, alongside Miguel Magalhães and Bernardo Matos, will lead GreenYellow Portugal, as the company looks to install 100MW of distributed solar over the next three years. GreenYellow plans to invest “nearly” €150 million (US$162.6 million) over this period in Poland and Portugal to deliver on these targets.
The news follows considerable growth in the Polish solar sector, with the Institute for Renewable Energy (IEO) reporting earlier this year that Poland had 17GW of solar capacity in operation, almost double that of its wind capacity. Growth such as this will be important if Europe, as a whole, is to meet its ambitious solar targets, with last year’s updated National and Energy Climate Plans (NECPs) increasing the EU’s capacity installation target by 90GW.
