Austrian utility Verbund is acquiring a 147.6MWp PV project in southern Spain from renewables developer BayWa r.e. as part of the company’s planned solar expansion.
Located near Granada in the Andalucía region, the Illora solar park is due to be commissioned in Q1 2022 after construction work started in May of this year.
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The project comprises three PV system sections and will produce around 260GWh of green electricity per year.
Representing Verbund’s entry into the Spanish market, the acquisition forms part of the utility’s goal of reaching around 20-25% of total production from solar PV and onshore wind by 2030.
Primarily focused on hydropower, Verbund earlier this year formed a joint venture with developer Visiolar that will see the pair look to develop up to 2GW of PV plants in Germany.
Benedikt Ortmann, global director of solar projects at BayWa r.e., said his company will be able to implement the Illora project on schedule despite restrictions caused by COVID-19 and delivery bottlenecks. “Spain remains one of our core markets and we have been able to post strong growth here in recent years,” he said.
Having been present in Spain since 2010, BayWa r.e. opened a new Madrid office in 2019 and last year sold assets in the country such as the 50MWp Don Rodrigo 2 plant and the 41.7MWp Tordesillas park.
BayWa r.e. said earlier this year that its project sales would ramp up in Q4, with the company expecting to sell 1.1GW of solar and wind plants during 2021.
With a pipeline of 1.4GW of solar and wind installations in Spain, the firm secured an additional 14MW of PV capacity in Spain’s renewables auction last month.
