Canadian pension fund Ontario Pension Trust (OPT) will acquire 2 GW of solar PV power generation projects in Spain from Spanish renewable energy group Forestalia. OPT has signed an exclusive agreement with Forestalia through Bruc Energy, a company it owns.
The deal whose financial terms weren't disclosed, comprises projects in the provinces of Zaragoza and Terue in Aragon region. These will continue to be developed by Forestalia and once they reach ready-to-build stage, Bruc Energy will acquire them. All these projects already have access to the transmission grid and are in administrative processing under Royal Decree-Law 23/2020. The decree was cleared in November 2020 to enable renewable energy auctions (see Way Cleared For Spanish Renewable Energy Auctions).
The transaction with Forestalia strengthens the position of Bruc Management and its investment vehicle Bruc Energy in the Iberian region after it first entered the space in January 2020 (see Spanish Solar Firm Gets New Executive Chairman). On the Iberian Peninsula, Bruc claims to have over 1 GW of renewable energy portfolio through various vehicles, while in Japan it touts 60 MW in assets.
Forestalia, on the other hand, says it has a project portfolio of over 6 GW after having promoted close to 2 GW of wind, solar and biomass projects.
This, however, isn't the maiden association between the 2 companies since previously 7 PV projects with 281 MW combined capacity, also in Zaragoza, were purchased by Bruc fropm Forestalia. Construction on these projects is scheduled to begin next spring.
Bruc is moving fast too. Recently, Bruc closed financing ith Banco Sabadell for the 110 MW Las Quinientas Solar Park in Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz that it acquired from Solaer. The project also has a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with an unidentified multinational energy company. At the end of December 2020, it also reached an agreement with Alter Enersun to acquire 55% stake in 12 PV projects with 550 MW cumulative capacity in Andalusia and Extremadura and place them under a new company called Bruc Alter Enersun.