Grenergy to build and sell Chilean solar parks of 30.6 MWp to CarbonFree

Grenergy, a leading Spanish renewable energy developer, announced the sale of four solar projects to CarbonFree Chile SpA. Grenergy has also signed an agreement to be the engineering, procurement and construction contractor to build the four solar plants. CarbonFree develops, finances, owns and operates PMGD solar projects in Chile.

The photovoltaic solar projects have a combined generating capacity of 30.6MW and are located 150 km southwest of Santiago in the regions of Maule and O'Higgins, where there is high solar irradiation. Their combined capital cost will be approximately US$33 million.

Construction of the four projects is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2019. The equipment to be used will include 370W monocrystalline solar modules supplied by Trina Solar, ground mounted single-axis trackers supplied by Axial Structural Solutions and 1.5 MW DC-AC inverters supplied by Ingeteam Corporación, S.A.

Electricity generated by the four projects will be sold to the Chilean grid under the (PMGD) small distributed generation means program. This program allows projects to connect to the distribution grid and inject electricity without curtailment. A stabilized price for each area is calculated every six months by the Comisión Nacional de Energía (National Energy Commission) based on an approximation of short-term PPA prices in the market and forecast weighted average spot prices for the next four years.

For CarbonFree, the four projects form part of a larger Chilean PMGD project portfolio of approximately 200 MW DC currently either in operation, under construction or in late-stage development by CarbonFree.

For Grenergy these projects are part of a larger development portfolio of 20 solar projects in Chile. Last week, Genergy announced an agreement with Sonnedi for the construction of two solar PMGD plants with a capacity of 18 MWp and a total investment of $17.5 million (about EUR 15.2 million).

Under its new Business Plan, Grenergy seeks to strengthen its position as an Independent Energy Producer (IPP) with the goal of reaching 350 MW in operation in the next two years. The company is targeting a 146% increase in its net profit to EUR 16 million and a four-fold increase in its EBITDA, to EUR 33 million by 2020.