Greek renewables firm PPC and international energy company RWE have taken the final investment decision to develop, through their joint venture Meton Energy, 280MW of solar capacity in Greece.
Comprised of three solar farms, the projects – dubbed Amynteo Cluster II – will start construction this Autumn and are expected to be operational by the end of 2024.
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The plants will be located in Western Macedonia, in northern Greece, near a former open pit lignite mine.
Total investment for the projects is €196 million (US$215 million), of which €98 million have been secured from the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility. The remaining amount is being financed through a €59 million commercial debt financing provided by financial firms Alpha Bank, Eurobank and National Bank of Greece and €39 million from shareholders’ equity.
Moreover, Meton Energy secured a 15-year power purchase agreement with PPC for the electricity produced from the three solar farms.
Both companies are currently building five utility-scale projects in the region – dubbed Amynteo Cluster I – with a combined capacity of 210MW, while Meton secured several PPAs with Greek electricity supplier Heron earlier this year, for three of the solar projects in Western Macedonia.
Katja Wünschel, CEO at RWE Renewables Europe & Australia, said: “In partnership with PPC Renewables we are accelerating the energy transition in Greece. Construction work on our initial five solar farms is well underway and we have made investment decisions to lay the ground for the next three photovoltaic projects. This underpins our strong commitment to the Greek market. And there is more to come from our large-scale development pipeline.”
On top of the solar projects currently under construction in Greece, Meton Energy is developing 2GW of additional solar projects in the country which continues to attract more and more solar PV projects and added 1.4GW of capacity in 2022, according to data from trade body SolarPower Europe.
Solar PV is expected to continue to add the most capacity from renewable auctions in the coming years, while the maturity of the market in Greece has opened opportunities for the PPA market to accelerate the development of projects. However, with multi-gigawatt of capacity seeking grid connection could slow down the pace at which the country has added solar capacity with grid congestion being one of the country’s main challenges to solve.