Spanish independent power producer (IPP) Zelestra has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla to sell 57MW of capacity from its upcoming solar projects.
Power will be generated at three Spanish projects in the municipality of Ciudad Real – the Brazatortas I, II and IV projects – and Zelestra has started construction at all three projects following the completion of the PPA.
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“We are excited about this agreement with Tesla, which will allow us to supply clean energy to the automotive industry, and proud to reinforce our role as a partner offering tailored, carbon-free solutions around the world and across all sectors,” said Zelestra chief commercial officer Ivan Nieto.
In recent years, Tesla’s involvement in the solar sector has shifted from deployments to signing offtake agreements, including acquiring 100MW of capacity from an Invenery project in Texas last week.
Last week also saw Zelestra’s commissioning of a 54MW solar plant in Murcia, Spain. The Cañada Alta project was financed by an investment of €35 million from Spanish bank BBVA, and Zelestra already has a PPA in place to sell electricity generated at the project to oil and gas major Shell for the next decade.
Zelestra’s offtake agreement mirrors a ten-year PPA signed with a consortium of pharmaceutical companies signed last year, for a 162MW portfolio in Spain that Zelestra expects to commission in the second quarter of 2026.
At this year’s Solar Finance & Investment Europe event, held by Solar Media in London, Zelestra global head of project finance Francisco González Palomo discussed the “paradox” behind changing electricity demand in Europe, that as data centres become more efficient, their demand for electricity grows. This growing demand could help drive appetite for new renewable power projects across Europe in the coming years.
“Our region has become a favourable environment for the implementation of energy projects, thanks to a regulatory framework that facilitates their development,” said Fernando López Miras, president of the autonomous community of Murcia. “Public officials must accompany and support companies, eliminating obstacles and promoting a change full of opportunities for the energy transition”.
Nomad Energy enters German market, expands European portfolio
Elsewhere in Europe, Polish engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm Nomad Electric has signed a contract to build a 20MW solar project in Germany for an unnamed operator.
The project will be the company’s first in Germany, and was announced last week, alongside the construction of two new PV plants in Poland for Energix Polska, with a combined capacity of 30MW. The company is also building a 24MW solar project in Portugal and a Romanian portfolio with a combined capacity of 12MW, part of a total EPC portfolio of 700MW, and an operations and maintenance (O&M) portfolio of 1.8GW.
“Our ambition is to become the preferred partner for investors,” said Nomad director of international business development Izabela Mielniczuk. “We are already working on contracting additional projects in Germany, laying a solid foundation for our long-term growth across Europe.”
“We are pleased to co-operate with Energix Polska, which is one of the most experienced entities on the RES market and to execute an unconventional PV project for them,” added Nomad chief commercial officer and board member Paweł Muszyński. “We are implementing central inverters, a solution that is not typical for our market, and this requires us to adopt an unconventional approach as well.”
