Norway-based renewable energy company, Statkraft, has signed an agreement with ‘The Renewables Infrastructure Group’ )(TRIG) to sell its portfolio of four co-located solar projects with a 234 MW cumulative capacity in Cadiz, Southern Spain.
The acquisition was the first-ever for Solarcentury-developed projects for Statkraft since Solarcentury’s acquisition last year. With this acquisition, Statkraft gained access to a 6 GW pipeline (gross) in Europe and South America that, combined with Statkraft’s current project portfolio, positioned the company as a leading developer in the European solar market.
The company said it would construct the project starting this month, and the projects are expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022.
TRIG is a renewable energy infrastructure investment company managed by InfraRed and RES. The company has invested in a portfolio of over 75 solar, wind, and battery storage projects with a renewable power generation capacity of over 1.9 GW.
TRIG’projects generate enough power to satisfy the power needs of over one million households while reducing 1.3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Executive Vice President of European Wind and Solar, Statkraft, Birgitte Ringstad Vartdal, said, “The Cadiz solar parks exemplify the quality of the project pipeline acquired through our Solarcentury transaction. Statkraft’s global ambition is to develop 2.5 to 3 GW of wind and solar annually by 2025. We are confidently on track to reaching our goal to develop 8 GW of solar and wind power by 2025.”
Ringstad Vartdal further added that the projects at Cadiz were developed with the community, “We are pleased that its managers, InfraRed and RES, would continue the management of these assets. We would work closely together throughout construction and during the handover of the operational solar parks.
In July 2021, distributed solar company Fourth Partner Energy acquired distributed solar portfolio with an 8.9 MWdc capacity from Statkraft India, of which 5 MW was an open access solar project, and the rest were rooftop solar.
In September last year, Statkraft Ireland acquired five solar projects with a combined capacity of 275 MW from Lightsource bp.
According to Mercom’s 1H and Q2 Solar Funding and M&A Report, in 1H 2021, 135 solar projects were acquired, totaling 39.3 GW compared to 91 project acquisitions for 14.7 GW in 1H 2020.
