German solar and wind project developer Encavis acquires five solar projects in the Netherlands with a generation capacity of 74 MW from Norwegian renewables company Statkraft. Three solar projects with a total capacity of 50 MW are already in operation. The two other solar projects will be connected to the grid in the upcoming months. All the projects will benefit from the Dutch subsidy scheme SDE+ for the first 15 years.
Under the deal, Statkraft developed and built the projects and will provide operational & maintenance (O&M) and long-term asset management services.
“The acquisition of these five solar projects from Statkraft enlarges our generation capacity in the Netherlands to 180 MW, further diversifies our PV portfolio in Western Europe, and increases our generation capacity to close to 1.9 GW within the Encavis Group,” said Dr. Dierk Paskert, CEO of Encavis.
The company’s current portfolio in the Netherlands includes four solar projects with a capacity of 105.6 MW. The acquisition will raise the generation capacity of Encavis to nearly 1.9 GW and bring the German company a step closer to its goal of reaching more than 3.4 GW.
During the first nine months of the 2021 financial year, the company generated revenue of €259.1 million (~$293.2 million), an 11% increase compared to €234.3 million(~$265.1 million) in the previous year. This is largely attributable to the revenue contribution of approximately €31.7 million (~$35.8 million) from the two large-scale Spanish solar parks La Cabrera (200 MW) and Talayuela (300 MW). In this way, the Spanish parks alone were able to more than compensate for the weather-related €12.2 million (~$13.8 million) decline in revenue from the existing parks.
According to Mercom Research, earlier in January 2021, a renewable energy infrastructure fund managed by Impax Asset Management Group sold the 110 MW Vlagtwedde solar project in the Netherlands to a German pension fund Versicherungskammer Group, under funds managed by Encavis Asset Management.
According to Mercom’s 9M and Q3 2021 Solar Funding and M&A Report, about 55.5 GW of solar projects were acquired in 9M 2021 compared to 24.3 GW in 9M 2020.
