Netherlands-headquartered automotive manufacturer Stellantis has acquired a minority stake in Argentinian renewable energy company 360Energy Solar.
Through a US$100 million investment representing a 49.5% stake in the share capital of 360Energy, Stellantis said that its move will help ecarbonise operations at its South American facilities. In particular, the manufacturer is seeking solar PV, battery energy storage systems (BESS) and green hydrogen projects to support its operations.
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Stellantis has a commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2038.
As part of the joint strategy between the two companies, 360Energy is already supplying clean power to Stellantis’ Argentinian production centres in Ferreyra (Córdoba) and El Palomar (Buenos Aires) from its La Rioja Solar Complex.
Including La Rioja, 360Energy has roughly 250MW of operational solar PV in Argentina, and a further 500MW of project pipeline.
Federico Sbarbi Osuna, CEO of 360Energy said: “This new path that we are embarking on together with Stellantis will allow us to accelerate our growth plans in Argentina and expand our operations to other countries in Latin America and Europe.”
Argentina’s solar market has seen increasing interest over the last year. In July 2023, the government issued a 620MW renewable energy tender which was oversubscribed with over 630MW of applications, over 500MW of which were for solar PV. In September, the government announced an agreement with ten northern provinces – known collectively as Región Norte Grande – to deploy 2.5GW of new renewable energy capacity including solar PV, small hydro, biomass and biogas. The allocated capacity in the regions ranges from 145MW to 370MW.
More recently, Chilean solar developer Verano Energy sold a 150MWp PV project in the western Argentinian region of Mendoza to an unnamed party.
Despite this recent activity, Argentina’s solar market is notably smaller than its neighbours’; energy think tank Ember said that the country had around 1.1GW of installed PV capacity as of the end of 2022.