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Enel Green Power España (EGPE), Endesa’s renewable energy subsidiary, has connected six new 42-megawatt photovoltaic solar plants (252 MW), it has built in Extremadura, to the grid, for an overall investment of 200 million euros. All the solar projects awarded to Endesa in the 2017 energy auction (339 MW) are now connected. These comprise six plants in Extremadura and one in Totana (Murcia), which went live in September.

EGPE was awarded 540 MW of wind power and 339 MW of solar energy at the government auctions held in May 2017, with a total investment of more than 800 million euros. The company has now connected 389 MW (339 solar and 50 wind) to the grid and is finalising the construction and connection of the remaining 490 MW of wind generation facilities, which will be complete by the end of this year.

This renewable capacity is in line with Endesa’s strategy of decarbonising its generation mix. The first milestone will be to reach 8.4 GW of renewable installed capacity by 2021, compared to the current 6.5 GW, with a total investment of about 2,000 million euros.

Each of Endesa’s three photovoltaic installations in Logrosán – Baylio, Dehesa de los Guadalupes and Furatena – comprise more than 42 megawatts of capacity each (127 MW in total). The facilities cost around 100 million euros to build. These solar installations are composed of around 372,000 modules, and can generate more than 240 GWh per year, avoiding annual emissions of approximately 158,000 tons of CO 2 into the atmosphere.

In the meantime, Endesa’s three solar plants in Casas de Don Pedro and Talarrubias – Navalvillar, Valdecaballero and Castilblanco-, which cost approximately 100 million euros to build, have more than 42 MW of installed capacity each. These solar farms, composed of more than 372,000 modules, can generate approximately 250 GWh per year, avoiding the annual emission of more than 164,000 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere.

These power plants have been built based on the “Sustainable Construction Site” model implemented by Enel Green Power, which uses renewable energy during construction. This is provided by a photovoltaic system that covers the energy needs of the works, as well as the implementation of initiatives designed to involve the local population in the execution of the project.

Endesa follows a facility development model that encompasses actions to create social value for the environments in which they are built, the so-called Creating Shared Value (CSV) model. Specifically, CSV projects implemented in Extremadura have boosted employment and improved employability in Extremadura, prioritising employment of local labour to build the plants, as well as the use of local workforce for tasks related to the site, catering and accommodation services for workers, renewable energy training courses for local residents, and other local associations.

Source: Endesa

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Long-term contracts, known as power purchase agreements, are transforming how companies buy and sell renewables-based electricity in Europe with profound implications for the sector.

Scope Ratings says the surging demand for PPAs represents a profound shift in risk-bearing in the sector: from operators of unregulated renewable energy power plants (utilities, independent power producers and financial investors), on the one hand, to so-called off-takers, on the other. Besides energy suppliers, owners of generation assets increasingly find direct buyers with energy-intensive corporates.

“For the seller of electricity under a PPA, the PPA can be considered a tool of risk transformation,” says Sebastian Zank, analyst at Scope. “For the off-takers, the long-term visibility on energy procurement, potential for profit associated with PPAs and reputational benefits offset the extra risk they take on,” Zank says.

“We believe the overall impact of PPAs for sellers and off-takers is credit-supportive,” he says. However, the overall impact depends on the specifications of used PPAs and the impact on a seller’s revenue and margin recognition or an off-taker’s raw material procurement strategy.

PPAs do, however, introduce significant counterparty and forecasting risk because the contracts are complex, non-standardised transactions between a buyer and a seller unlike hedging transactions for conventional sources of electricity which typically take place on power exchanges or through short-term contracts.

The primary catalysts for PPA take-up in Europe are the phasing out of subsidies for newly installed wind and solar assets across Europe and the achievement of “grid parity” in many countries whereby solar- and wind-powered electricity generation has become competitive on price with coal, gas and nuclear power.

Owners of unregulated renewable energy assets/projects – such as Encavis, Energparc, Energiekontor, Neoen, Akuo – renewables divisions of large European utilities or financial investors – such as Octopus Investments, Aquila Capital, Greencoat Capital, Luxcara – have a natural interest to hedge electricity sales over a longer time horizon. Such long-term hedges in the form of PPAs are already well established with off-takers such as energy traders or utility incumbents, for example: Engie, Vattenfall, Axpo, Alpiq, Uniper among others.

Extra demand for PPAs is increasingly coming from industrial and corporate consumers, particularly energy-intensive companies. Aluminium supplier Alcoa, steelmaker ArcelorMittal and state railway companies Deutsche Bahn and SNCF are among those with PPAs in Europe wanting to procure environmentally friendly power supplies which they can use to burnish their “green credentials,” hence recent PPAs with renewable-energy suppliers.

The global market for corporate PPAs with direct consumers of electricity is set for a new global high this year, with the 13 GW contracted in the first nine months of the year already at the level of mid-to-long-term PPAs signed for all of 2018 – itself a record year – with much of the growth in the Americas.

Europe is catching up: “We expect continued strong growth in Europe judging by recent corporate PPAs struck in Q3 2019,” says Zank.

PPAs in EMEA, primarily Europe, will likely cover a renewables capacity of around 3 GW of electricity this year, up 30% from 2018. And this volume comes on top of the PPA signed between sellers and energy suppliers which is estimated at a volume of between 7 and 10 GW per annum (Source: Pexapark).

Another shift related to the rise in use of PPAs is the growing competition that the trading/supply businesses of incumbent European utilities face from smaller competitors. Consumers can directly procure energy volumes directly from the generator without an intermediary and newcomers, such as the energy-supply arm of British Octopus Energy, or smaller energy suppliers, such as Audax Renovables or Factorenergia, can source electricity using PPAs struck with individual renewable-energy projects without necessarily having generating assets of their own.

“In doing so, they can take on the trading and even retail operations of the incumbents,” says Zank.

Source: Scope Ratings

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Engie has relied on GES for the construction in Chile of the Calama Wind Farm (162MW) and the Capricorn Photovoltaic Plant (97MW). These are the first two renewable projects that the utility will build in Chile. The experience of GES in the country and the know-how of the company in the wind farms built for Engie in Mexico have been the best reference to be awarded this important contract. The two have a combined capacity of 259 MW. GES has already begun the detailed engineering on both projects, which will be built over a year.

Capricornio PV Plant

The Capricornio PV Plant (97MWp) will be located 35 km from the city of Antofagasta, GES will be in charge of the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction), without supplying the main equipment of the solar field, which includes both the interconnection line and the substations. With the peculiarity that GES will elaborate the specifications, supervision of the manufacture and logistics of the equipment. This represents a valuable contribution that will have an impact in the project’s execution deadlines. GES has started the detailed engineering, construction of the project will last for one year.

Calama Wind Farm

The Calama Wind Farm (162MW) will be located 12 km away from the city of Calama, also in the region of Antofagasta. GES will be in charge of the engineering and construction of all the infrastructure, both civil and electrical for the evacuation of energy generated by 36 wind turbines of 4.5 MW each with a hub height of 94 meters. GES proposed a foundation solution that allows to raise the height of the wind turbine more than four meters in order to improve the production of the wind farm. The civil works will include the construction of the foundations and platforms for the wind turbines, more than 20 km of roads and the substation building. As for the electrical works, GES will be in charge of the medium voltage network, the elevator substation and the connection with the pre-existing overhead line. The construction works will last twelve months.

Calama is the first wind farm that Engie will build in Chile. GES has previously worked with Engie on Projects Tres Mesas 3 and Tres Mesas 4 in Mexico.

In the constant search to add value to the projects in which it is involved, GES will act as integrator of the whole installation in order to provide Engie with all the documentation package for the application for permits and the necessary steps to start the commercial operation of the park.
In fact, GES’ capacity as provider of both wind and photovoltaic solutions has been decisive for the joint awarding of the projects. GES is a reference in the renewable sector in the Andean country, where it has built the Conejo photovoltaic silver, which is still among the eight largest photovoltaic plants in the country. As for the wind references, GES’ solvency in the Chilean market is backed by a solid trajectory that began in 2012, when the country started its renewable activity. During these six years, the company has built nine wind farms and installed eight, which represents more than 800 MW.

Source: GES

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The RE-Source Platform has launched a comprehensive new toolkit, offering guidance and advice on corporate sourcing of renewable energy. The toolkit has a dual purpose: first, to raise awareness and inform entrant corporates and policymakers to the opportunities in sourcing renewable energy; second, to facilitate business transactions between buyers and sellers, making them faster, easier, and cheaper.

 

The Renewable Energy Buyer’s Toolkit includes an ‘Introduction to Corporate Sourcing in Europe’ report, that outlines the main business models of corporate renewable sourcing in Europe, and is intended for corporate energy buyers who are new to corporate sourcing and the European market to use as an introductory ‘how-to’ guide, helping them to start their journey in renewable electricity purchasing. The toolkit also includes:

  • European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET) Template corporate PPA: A standardised contract to provide guidance and simplify transactions.
  • European Corporate Sourcing Directory: Information on possible models of corporate sourcing in particular countries.
  • PPA training courses for corporate buyers: How to value and compare corporate PPAs.

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Spanish renewable energy developers, asset owners and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) are missing out on opportunities to engage with international investors and maximise the value of their assets in the primary and secondary markets. This is according to Augusta & Co., a specialist financial adviser to the renewable energy industry, which has managed transactions to an aggregate value of over €10 billion throughout Europe.

In particular, Augusta has highlighted the limitations of an insular approach, whereby Spanish asset owners selling on projects are choosing to engage in bilateral discussions with familiar investors, rather than seeking to broaden the pool of prospective buyers – both domestic and international – via a Structured Sales Process.

These bilateral discussions limit the value that sellers can unlock from their assets, often allowing buyers to take the upper hand and dictate pricing. They are also leaving sellers vulnerable to complexities or weaknesses in the eventual Sales Purchase Agreement with respect to factors such as warranties or financial penalties.

Indeed, Augusta estimates that Spanish IPPs and developers could be missing out on up to 20% of potential asset value as a result of limitations to negotiating power, and inability to fully engage with the international investment community.

“Spain is currently a hotspot for European renewable energy, and has recorded a huge amount of deal flow over the past 18 months, demonstrating considerable investor appetite,” said Axel Narváez, Managing Director, Head of Spain, Augusta & Co. “In order to sustain this momentum, however, and for owners to unleash full value from their development and operational projects, the market needs to ensure that it is open to and bringing on board the investors that are the best fit for these assets.”

“By entering a Structured Sales Process, supported by an advisor with a genuinely international network, developers and IPPs in Spain can mitigate the risks inherent in dealing with a single party, and ensure that they achieve a fair sale value.”

For Spanish asset owners, an independently managed Structured Sales Process will bring a broader range of potential investors into play, including institutional investors from Spain and overseas. This will create a more competitive environment in which sellers have greater control over the terms of the sale, and the valuation of their project or portfolio.

By creating – and then narrowing down – a targeted shortlist of investors, advisors can ensure that buyers are sought who have a genuine interest in the asset and are prepared to offer a fair price. In turn, engagement with the wider international investment community will support Spain’s ambitions to more than double its installed asset base and meet its ambitious target of 74% renewable energy generation by 2030.

Source: Augusta & Co.

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Public and private sector leaders are being urged to double annual investments in renewable energy to keep the world well below 2°C of warming, says a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published ahead of the UN Climate Action Summit in New York. With just 11 years left for action to limit the effects of climate change, annual investments of USD 4.3 trillion in the energy sector until 2030 is the world’s most practical and readily available climate solution.

Annual renewable energy investments for the next decade need to double from around USD 330 billion to nearly USD 750 billion per year until 2030.

The findings form part of a new climate investment report by IRENA that highlights how cumulative global energy investments must pivot overwhelmingly towards low-carbon technologies including renewables. More than USD 18.6 trillion of planned fossil-fuel investments by 2050 need to be redirected to hold the line called for by the Paris Agreement and reaffirmed by the recent special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Despite the urgency, current investment patterns show a stark mismatch with the pathway necessary to ensure a climate-safe future. Together, renewable energy and energy efficiency, along with deeper electrification, can deliver 90 per cent of the energy-related emission cuts needed under the Paris Agreement.

“It’s possible to limit climate change and meet the world’s growing energy demand by rapidly accelerating the speed at which we deploy renewable energy,” said IRENA’s Director-General Francesco La Camera. “Only an energy transformation driven by renewables will allow us to meet the goals of the UN 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement. Renewables are the only ready and available instrument we have to hold the 1.5°C line over the next 11 years.”

“In meeting climate goals, we can also boost economic growth and deliver on sustainable development with renewables,” continued Mr. La Camera. “But there is an urgent need to rethink long-term energy investment decisions to ensure they lead us to the sustainable future we need. Doubling investments in renewables offers us a tremendous opportunity to improve health, create jobs, deliver economic opportunity and tackle climate change. No other solution is as plausible.”

Transforming the energy system with renewables offers a more cost-effective path than climate inaction. Every dollar invested in the energy transition will offer returns of up to three to seven times in improved human health, lower climate related expenditure and reduced subsidies.

But accelerating renewable energy deployment requires policies that create an enabling environment to unlock investment and encourage economic development, the new report concludes. IRENA will work closer to the ground, facilitating projects and assisting countries in building attractive investment frameworks for renewables. The Agency will also enhance cooperation with the private sector, international financial institutions and multilateral organisations.

In support of the UN Secretary General’s call for decisive climate action, IRENA has launched a campaign that underpins renewable energy as a practical climate action solution. In co-operation with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Agency’s “Lead the change. It’s possible with renewables” campaign aims to inform about the potential of renewable energy technologies and in turn encourage concrete climate action.

Source: IRENA

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Foundation of a wind turbine

GES, an integral supplier of engineering, construction and maintenance for renewable energy projects (wind, solar and hydroelectric) will build the Valdejalón wind portfolio consisting of 5 wind farms in Aragón, Spain. Once completed, the wind farms will have a total installed capacity of 231 MW. Construction is expected to be finalized in 2020 second quarter.

The project is divided into two phases: Valdejalón East which includes the wind farms El Cabezo (49 MW) and Portillo II Phase I (45.6 MW) and Phase II (38 MW), and Valdejalón West composed of Virgen de Rodanas I (49.4 MW) and Virgen de Rodanas II (49.4 MW).

The Valdejalón portfolio is fully owned by the Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners P/S (CIP) through its fund Copenhagen Infrastructure III K/S (CI-III). CIP is a fund management company focused on energy infrastructure including offshore wind, onshore wind, solar PV, biomass and energy-from-waste, transmission and distribution, and other energy assets like reserve capacity and storage. The company operates in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia.

GES is responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction of the project. The company is already working in the detail engineering, and will be in charge of the complete BOP (Balance of Plant), both the civil work, with more than 60 km of roads and 61 foundations and platforms for the 85 m wind turbines to be installed in the park; and the electrical work, including the underground medium voltage network with more than 55 km of trenches and the 132 kV evacuation line of almost another 50 km, which will connect the two new substations to an existing interconnection substation.

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Offshore wind East Anglia One

Iberdrola has hooked up the East Anglia One offshore wind farm to the British electricity grid. It is building the facilities in the North Sea, around 50 km from the coast of the county of Suffolk, in the United Kingdom, and it is scheduled to go into operation next year.

The first of 102 wind turbines, the so-called WTG E19, has already supplied clean power to the land substation in Burstall. Its subsidiary, ScottishPower Renewables, which installed 25 turbines on the site this summer, will gradually connect them to the grid.

With an investment of approximately 2.5 MM£ and covering an area of 300 km2, East Anglia One is one of the largest scale projects being developed by Iberdrola and the biggest renewable initiative ever developed by a Spanish company.

Once commissioned in 2020, it will be the world’s biggest wind farm, with an installed capacity of 714 MW that will supply 630,000 British homes with clean energy.

The construction of East Anglia One is driving the offshore power industry in Europe, providing jobs for more than 1,300 people in several countries – Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates – and is crucial to several sectors, such as the naval industry. The project has been a great driving force in Spain, since Iberdrola has used local companies like Navantia, Windar and Siemens-Gamesa for the development of many of the essential components of the wind farm.

Technical specifications ofeast anglia one

  • 102 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines make up the wind farm, each with a capacity of 7 MW. Once installed, they will have a total height of 167 m.
  • A marine substation (Andalusia II), manufactured by Navantia in Puerto Real (Cádiz), will be responsible for receiving the electricity produced by the wind turbines and transforming the voltage so it can be sent to the coast through two undersea cables, each around 85 km long.
  • These cables are joined to a further six underground cables measuring around 37 km and running from Bawdsey to the new land-based transformer in Burstall, which connects the offshore wind farm to the national grid.
  • Of the 102 jacket-type foundations, Navantia has manufactured 42 in Fene (Spain) and Windar has built the pilot cables in Avilés (Asturias). The other 60 foundations were manufactured by Lamprell in the United Arab Emirates and by Harland & Wolff in Belfast.

 

Iberdrola, steadfast commitment to offshore wind power

Over the next few years, Iberdrola will redouble its investment in offshore wind production, developing a project portfolio with over 10,000 MW. This growth focuses on three main areas: the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the United States.

Clean power generated by offshore wind farms are the cornerstone of the company’s strategy, which expects to allocate 39% of the 34 MM€ earmarked for the 2018-2022 period to this type of generation: 13.26 MM€.

The group is currently operating two offshore wind farms: West of Duddon Sands, which went into service in the North Sea in 2014, and Wikinger, in the German waters of the Baltic Sea, which has been operational since December 2017.

In the United States, Iberdrola is in the process of building the biggest offshore wind farm in that country: Vineyard Wind. Just off the coast of Massachusetts, it will produce 800 MW of power to cover the energy needs of a million homes.

In Germany, in April 2018, the company was awarded contracts to build two new plants in the Baltic Sea, with a total of 486 MW of power: Baltic Eagle and Wikinger South.

In addition to these new plants, the Sant Brieuc Wind Farm, which is located in French waters, is scheduled to be commissioned in 2022. It will have 496 MW of installed power and will be located just off the coast of French Brittany, 20 km offshore.

Once these projects are operating in late 2022, the company will have installed 2,000 MW of offshore wind power, after which it will add a further 1,000.

Iberdrola is seizing this excellent opportunity for growth, with ambitious objectives for new wind generation facilities in the United Kingdom and the United States for the next few years: 30,000 MW for 2030 in the former and 25,000 MW in the latter, each with different timelines.

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Global investment in new renewable energy capacity over this decade — 2010 to 2019 inclusive — is on course to hit USD 2.6 trillion, with more gigawatts of solar power capacity installed than any other generation technology, according to the Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investment 2019 report, released ahead of the UN Global Climate Action Summit.

The report is commissioned by the UN Environment Programme in cooperation with Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance and produced in collaboration with BloombergNEF. The report is supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety.

According to the report this investment is set to have roughly quadrupled renewable energy capacity (excluding large hydro) from 414 GW at the end of 2009 to just over 1,650 GW when the decade closes at the end of this year.

Solar power will have drawn half — USD 1.3 trillion — of the USD 2.6 trillion in renewable energy capacity investments made over the decade. Solar alone will have grown from 25 GW at the beginning of 2010 to an expected 663 GW by the close of 2019 — enough to produce all the electricity needed each year by about 100 million average homes in the USA.

The global share of electricity generation accounted for by renewables reached 12.9 per cent, in 2018, up from 11.6 per cent in 2017. This avoided an estimated 2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions last year alone — a substantial saving given global power sector emissions of 13.7 billion tonnes in 2018.

Including all major generating technologies (fossil and zero-carbon), the decade is set to see a net 2,366 GW of power capacity installed, with solar accounting for the largest single share (663 GW), coal second (529 GW), and wind and gas in third and fourth places (487 GW and 438 GW respectively).

The cost-competitiveness of renewables has also risen dramatically over the decade. The levelized cost of electricity (a measure that allows comparison of different methods of electricity generation on a consistent basis) is down 81 per cent for solar photovoltaics since 2009; that for onshore wind is down 46 per cent.

2018 sees quarter-trillion dollar mark exceeded again

The report, released annually since 2007, also continued its traditional look at yearly figures, with global investment in renewables capacity hitting USD 272.9 billion in 2018.

While this was 12 per cent down over the previous year, 2018 was the ninth successive year in which capacity investment exceeded USD 200 billion and the fifth successive year above USD 250 billion. It was also was about three times the global investment in coal and gas-fired generation capacity combined.
The 2018 figure was achieved despite continuing falls in the capital cost of solar and wind projects, and despite a policy change that hit investment in China in the second half of the year.

A record 167 GW of new renewable energy capacity was completed in 2018, up from 160 GW in 2017.

The report also tracks other, non-capacity investment in renewables — money going into technology and specialist companies. All of these types of investment showed increases in 2018. Government and corporate research and development was up 10 per cent at USD 13.1 billion, while equity raised by renewable energy companies on public markets was 6 per cent higher at USD 6 billion, and venture capital and private equity investment was up 35 per cent at USD 2 billion.

Overall renewable energy investment, including these categories as well as capacity investment, reached USD 288.3 billion in 2018, down 11 per cent on the record figure of USD 325 billion attained in 2017.

China still leads, but renewables investment spreads

China has been by far the biggest investor in renewables capacity over this decade, having committed USD 758 billion between 2010 and the first half of 2019, with the U.S. second on USD 356 billion and Japan third on USD 202 billion.

Europe as a whole invested USD 698 billion in renewables capacity over the same period, with Germany contributing the most at USD 179 billion, and the United Kingdom USD 122 billion.

While China remained the largest single investor in 2018 (at USD 88.5 billion, down 38 per cent), renewable energy capacity investment was more spread out across the globe than ever last year, with 29 countries each investing more than USD 1 billion, up from 25 in 2017 and 21 in 2016.

Spain, Vietnam, Ukraine and South Africa were among the countries in the “USD 1 billion-plus club” that saw capacity investment jump by more than fivefold in 2018. India is an increasingly important investor in renewables, committing USD 11 billion in 2018 and a total of USD 90 billion between 2010 and the end of the first half of this year.

Source: BloombergNEF

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Solarpack Corporación Tecnológica, SA (the “Company” or “Solarpack”) announces the closing of the acquisition of 90.5% of the solar photovoltaic (” FV “) projects Tacna Solar and Panamericana Solar (the “Projects”) with TAWA SOLAR FUND LP and the rest of the Projects’ shareholders, for US$ 51.5 million. With this milestone, the Company has become the owner of 100% of the Projects, since prior to the transaction it had 9.5% of the shares of the special purpose vehicles (“SPVs”) owning the assets: Tacna Solar SAC and Panamericana Solar SAC.

The Projects, which were developed and built by Solarpack in 2012 in association with Gestamp Asetym Solar (now X-ELIO), are located in southern Peru and have a total combined installed capacity of 43 MW. Both Projects have a long-term power purchase agreement (“PPA”) in US$ in place with the Peruvian Ministry of Energy, as a result of the first renewable energy resources (“RER”) tender held in Peru in 2010, and have more than 13 years of remaining contractual life under their respective PPAs.

The Projects have a long-term non-recourse project financing granted by Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), had a net financial debt of 113 MM$ as of February 28, 2019 and booked a joint EBITDA (Pro forma EBITDA 2018 considered the acquisition of the c. 13 MW in Spain as if it had happened on January 1, 2018, and was 25.2 MM€) of 21 MM$ in 2018.

In order to partly finance the acquisition of the Projects, Solarpack has disbursed a bridge loan granted by Banco Santander for 30 MM$. For the amortization of the bridge loan, the Company contemplates several options that may involve the entry of a minority partner in the Projects or, alternatively, maintaining full ownership of the assets.

The transaction is part of Solarpack’s strategy to selectively acquire operating assets that offer attractive returns and clear value creation opportunities from operational or other types of synergies. With this acquisition, the Company accelerates the original growth plan with which it went public in December 2018.

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