Fashion retailer H&M has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with independent power producers (IPPs) Neoen and Alight for a 90MWp solar park in Sweden.
Located near Hultsfred airport in the southeast of Sweden, the solar project is scheduled to start construction during the second half of 2023, with commissioning expected in 2025.
The project will be jointly developed and owned by Neoen – serving as the majority shareholder – and Alight, while it will further increase H&M’s target to source 100% of renewable electricity by 2030.
Under the long-term agreement, the plant will provide the retailer with renewable energy and guarantees of origin, with the PPA hailed as the largest one so far in Sweden, according to H&M.
This marks the first PPA for Neoen in Sweden and its ninth in the Nordics, with nearly 500MW of renewable energy contracted in the region, according to Xavier Barbaro, CEO and chairman of Neoen.
Harald Överholm, CEO of Alight, said: “We are very proud of our partnership with Neoen and H&M Group for signing a power purchase agreement that enables us to rapidly build new clean electricity in Southern Sweden, where the demand for electricity is the highest.”
Swedish developer Alight recently received a US$150 million investment from DIF Capital Partners to accelerate the deployment of its solar pipeline to be completed, for the most part, in the next two years. The company currently has a pipeline of 1GW in the Nordics and a further 170MW across Europe.