Plentiude, the renewable energy development arm of Italian oil and gas major Eni, has started operations at the northern block of its 330MW Renopool solar portfolio in Spain.
This block has a capacity of 130MW and consists of three separate solar projects. The company expects to begin commercial operations at the rest of the portfolio, which is located in the province of Badajoz, western Spain, near the Portuguese border, at the end of this year.
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“The Renopool project will be our largest solar plant installation, not only because of its size, but also because of its positive environmental and economic impact on the region and will contribute to the country’s energy transition,” said Mariangiola Mollicone, Plentiude’s head of renewables in western Europe and managing director of Eni Plenitude Renewables Spain.
The news follows Eni’s sale of a 20% stake in Plenitude to the Ares Management Corporation for around €2 billion (US$2.3 billion), as it seeks to encourage external investment in what it calls its “satellite companies”.
Spain has long been a leader in the European solar sector, with more than 32GW of capacity as of January this year, more than any other single technology in the country, according to grid operator Red Eléctrica. This has been the driving force behind an energy mix for which renewable power accounts for 65.9% of generation.
However, this rapid growth has put pressure on the country’s grid infrastructure, leading to a significant blackout in April that has prompted changes to the country’s electrical system.
Effectively using the vast volumes of renewable energy generation capacity currently coming online has become a key challenge for the European energy mix; earlier this year, José Andrés Visquert, global head of grid at renewables developer BayWa r.e., told PV Tech Premium that, simply, “we need more grid”.
A study from Beyond Fossil Fuels, E3G, Ember Climate and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) found that, as of May this year, around 1.7GW of renewable energy capacity was waiting for grid connections in Europe.
Plenitude has not specified whether an offtake agreement has been signed for the Renopool project. The company’s operating solar portfolio now stands at 1.3GW, with an additional pipeline of 2GW of capacity.
