July 27 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian solar energy group Solarpro Holding and France-based decentralised solar photovoltaic (PV) production company GreenYellow entered a strategic partnership to co-invest in large scale on-site self-consumption solar power plants in Eastern Europe, the two companies said.
The first joint project will be a 4 MWp PV power plant developed for the Bulgarian operations of Belgium-based soda ash maker Solvay, Solarpro and GreenYellow said in a joint statement.
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The PV plant is expected to produce 5,300 MWh of green energy on an annual basis.
It will be built on an industrial land plot of Bulgarian brine producer Provadsol, a unit of Devnya-based Solvay Sodi.
The plant will operate on the basis of Solar as a Service (SaaS) agreement. GreenYellow is acting as a lead investor, while Solarpro will build and operate the asset, the statement reads.
“The self-consumption PVPP and SaaS are the most attractive part of the energy transition. We have already successfully completed similar type of projects with other commercial and industrial groups in the region," the company's CEO Konstantin Nenov said in the statement. "Partnering with GreenYellow will scale-up all necessary resources - human capital, technical experience and funding to accomplish in near future at least 100 MWp in Eastern Europe,” he added.
According to Nenov, the price hikes on the energy markets have catalysed interest in SaaS and in long-term power purchase agreements (PPA’s) for green energy on the part of Solarpro's industrial partners in Europe. The partnership with GreenYellow will allow Solarpro to address this demand in the immediate term, he added.
"With this strategic partnership with Solarpro, GreenYellow continues its international expansion, in line with its strong growth ambitions. Thanks to this partnership, we aim to develop 100MWp of installed capacity by 2025," Otmane Hajji, CEO of GreenYellow, said in the statement.
Last month, North Macedonia's government signed a contract with Solarpro Holding for the construction of a 50 MW photovoltaic power plant at the location of an old mine in Oslomej as part of a public-private partnership with state-owned electricity company ESM.
Solarpro Holding is one of the leading clean energy platforms in Eastern Europe, where it offers a full range of renewable energy services including investments in generation assets, project development and construction services, operations and maintenance, balancing and trading, energy storage and other services. As a general contractor and solar energy construction services provider, the Solarpro group is a global player with multiple gigawatts of installed capacity PV projects and projects for over 1 GWp are currently under construction. It employs over 1,000.
Paris-based GreenYellow is specialised in decentralised solar photovoltaic production, energy efficiency projects and energy services. The company is operating in 16 countries, and has more than 500 employees.
By March 31, 2021, GreenYellow had developed 355 MWp of PV capacity, of which 184 MWp are partly or fully owned, nearly 2,600 energy efficiency agreements representing an annual volume of 855 GWh, of which 511 GWh are partly or fully owned, and was managing more than 2.9 TWh of energy for its clients.
($ = 0.8489 euro)