From pv magazine Spain
Lightsource BP, which is 50% owned by the British energy company BP, has sealed an agreement with the Portuguese solar company Insun to develop five photovoltaic projects totaling 1.35 GW in Portugal.
The projects are in the initial phase of development and will be located in the Moura, Castelo Branco, Mogadouro, Chamusca and Viseu regions. Overall, these projects will require an investment of approximately €900 million.
Lightsource BP announced its entry into the Iberian energy market at the end of 2018, initially establishing itself in Madrid, and in 2019 it opened its office in Lisbon with a local team. In just two years, Lightsource BP has more than 2 GW in development in Spain and, with this transaction, it now has more than 3.5 GW in all of Iberia. The company says it is also actively exploring opportunities for green hydrogen.
In a separate press release, Lightsource BP also announced its entry into Greece after winning an auction and signing a 640 MWp co-development agreement with the local company Kiefer TEK. Specifically, 140 MW has been awarded, which represents more than 40% of the total capacity awarded in the latest Greek solar and wind auction. The awarded projects are part of a broader, 640 MW portfolio to be developed with local company Kiefer TEK which, according to Lightsource BP, will allow it to “launch itself as a major developer and investor.”
The solar market in Greece is mainly based on auctions. More than 1 GW of wind and solar projects were submitted to the last tender, of which contracts of up to 350 MW have been awarded. The average price awarded to the Lightsource BP projects was €38.50 per MWh.
The company expects more than 200 MW to come online in the next 24 months, including the 140 MW won in the auction. The company will initially invest around €160 million in the country. The co-development agreement includes Kiefer TEK as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services contractor.
Lightsource BP will sell part of the project's electricity to the government at the offered price. The rest of the electricity will be sold to commercial and industrial customers and on the free electricity market.
With the addition of Greece, Lightsource BP has a presence in 14 countries, with a project portfolio of 20 GW on three continents.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
1 comment
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.