Solar PV developer and asset owner Photon Energy has signed an operations & maintenance (O&M) contract with Swedish developer OX2 AB for 100.19MWp of solar PV in Poland.
Photon signed the agreement through its Polish O&M subsidiary, Photon Energy Operations PL. The capacity is split across two projects in Rutki and Góra, south-western Poland, and the deal was signed for an initial two-year period. The company did not provide a breakdown of the specific capacities of the two projects.
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With the closing of this deal, Photon Energy now has 267.5MWp of solar PV under O&M contracts in Poland. It said that it has a global target of 1GWp of assets by year’s end 2024, with over 650MW currently accounted for across its Central & Eastern European markets and Australia.
In its earnings call for Q3 2023, Photon Energy posted reduced revenues and earnings which it blamed on a “slow down” in the PV market in its key regions.
“Photon Energy’s footprint with in-house PV O&M services teams in five of the key CEE markets paired with 14 years of experience puts us into a unique position to serve both local and international investors with PV assets across multiple markets alike,” said Photon Energy Group CEO, Georg Hotar.
He continued: “In the light of the continuing growth in installed capacity in Poland and the expected acceleration in Romania and the Czech Republic in coming years, we see significant further growth potential beyond next year.”
Poland has been the success story for European solar in recent years. According to the Polish Institute for Renewable Energy (IEO) the country has 18GW of installed capacity as of Q3 2023, and 6.6GW of grid-connection permits have been issued for solar PV projects since December 2022.
As explained in the first of a two-part feature on PV Tech Premium, some of Poland’s rise is a welcome positive outcome from the energy price crisis that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Governments and businesses looked to secure their energy supply and turned to PV and wind to do so, creating large demand and a particularly robust corporate PPA market.
Earlier this year, OX2 spoke to this publication about its expansion into the Nordics and the application of its experience in the wind power market to developing solar PV (premium access).