Spanish IPP hopeful Solaria shrugs off pandemic to post profit surge

Spanish independent power producer (IPP) Solaria has shrugged off the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, going on to report surging generation in Q1 2020.

And company chairman Enrique Díaz-Tejeiro has backed the company’s ongoing strategy to see it through the crisis, maintaining its target of deploying 3.3GW by 2023.

Yesterday (18 May 2020) the PV manufacturer-turned-pure play developer disclosed its results for the first quarter of the year, announcing a 20% increase in earnings to €9.3 million (US$10.2 million) and a 39% spike in net profit to €7.19 million (US$7.9 million).

Those results were recorded on the back of soaring energy generation. At 78.8GWh, Solaria trebled its energy output for the Q1 period year-on-year. In addition, the developer also revealed it had obtained access permits for a further 1.3GW of solar.

The company intends now to double down on its strategy, with Díaz-Tejeiro arguing it to be the most effective way for Solaria to help the wider society overcome the ongoing pandemic.

Spain has been amongst the countries hardest hit by the COVID-19 outbreak, resulting in a total shutdown of solar deployment for a 10-day period last month. A plethora of developers have now returned to work, however.

While Solaria provided no specific details, Díaz-Tejeiro stressed that the company must undertake new projects “now, more than ever”.

This, the company said, would be aided by a recent upgrade to its credit rating to BBB, a milestone set to improve the firm's access to finance.  

Tags: solaria, spain, ipp, utility-scale solar, pandemic, covid-19, lsdigital, financedigital