Octopus, the largest commercial solar player in Europe, today announces that it has renewed its power purchase agreements (“PPA”) with one of Italy’s leading renewable energy traders EGO Group. The deal will see Octopus continue to supply EGO with power from a portfolio of five operational and subsidy-free sites with a capacity of 63MW until September 2023.
The renewal between Octopus and EGO will see electricity provided at a fixed contracted price valid until September 2023 for both energy and Guarantees of Origin, for which contracts were also signed. The five sites are located near Montalto di Castro in the Lazio region of Italy and were part of a €23m refinancing by Octopus earlier this year in January.
The deal closely follows the announcement of another five-year PPA with Shell Energy, further demonstrating the rise of Italy as a key market for Octopus as it continues to drive the development of the subsidy-free solar and corporate PPA markets in the country. EGO now has 103MW of solar PV power contracted with Octopus out of the total 173MW currently owned by Octopus in Italy.
Ed Pitt Ford, Senior Investment Manager at Octopus, said:
“In the current photovoltaic market, long-term purchase agreements have a fundamental strategic role. We have been working with EGO for almost two years and have nothing but praise for the manner in which they operate. We are pleased to entrust them with a significant share of our pioneering projects in Italy.”
Stefano Cavriani, founder and commercial director of EGO Group, commented:
“This contract is another piece of the robust growth path that our company has undertaken in both traditional sectors and new markets. Following our positive performance in 2017 with a turnover of €540 million and €15 million of EBITDA, we aim to consolidate our results this year and expand our activity in the PPA and demand-response markets.”
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