As Europe navigates the path towards becoming a climate neutral region by 2050 relying on a huge amount of renewables to get there, there is major activity happening in the solar market as of recently. A number of partnerships, joint ventures, large scale projects are being announced by companies to ensure they get to entrench themselves here before it is too late.
The latest solar project development venture announced for the region is AMPYR Solar Europe (ASE) that targets to develop 'at least' 4 GW of solar projects across the UK, Netherlands and Germany. It is a joint venture between merchant commodities firm, Hartree Partners, asset management group AGP Sustainable Real Assets and solar parks developer NaGa Solar that's already active in the Netherlands and Germany.
Hartree Partners announced that ASE will build on its existing partnership with AGP called AMPYR Energy UK which is currently developing 1.5 GW of onshore wind, solar PV and associated battery storage projects in the UK. The UK operations will combine the solar assets with those under development in the Netherlands and Germany through NaGa Solar.
So what's in it for the 3 partners in this joint venture? Backed by Oaktree Capital Management, for Hartree the new platform 'represents another step away from its origins in oil and gas towards renewable energy'. AGP's Founding Partner Rajpal Singh Chaudhary said it enables the group to broaden its footprint from its Asian roots into Europe.
As for NaGa Solar, the partnership with AGP and Hartree allows it to "accelerate the speed and expand the number of sites we could have developed on our own and will provide the quick deployment of capital necessary to build a large portfolio of attractive solar investment opportunities," according to NaGa CEO Henny Pelsers.
ASE, the partners explained, presents an 'attractive' opportunity for institutional investors to deploy over €1 billion of capital to generate a 'reliable, long-term income'.
Referring to Europe's changing energy landscape Hartree's Founding Partner Stephen Hendel said, "The key to achieving returns on renewables in a post-subsidy environment will be PPAs and innovative structuring; skills we view as core to Hartree."
Going forward, ASE will have competition from newer platforms being launched by companies in association with deep pocketed investors. Just recently, Macquarie's Green Investment Group launched Cero Generation claiming a 8 GW strong solar development portfolio (see GIG Launches Cero With 8 GW Solar Development Portfolio). US headquartered Chinese solar power company ReneSola has announced several European solar focused partnerships in the recent past (see Yet Another European Joint Venture For ReneSola).
In January 2021, Canadian Solar and Windel Capital said they will jointly develop 1.4 GW solar power project portfolio in the UK (see Canadian Solar Gets Partner For 1.4 GW Solar In UK). Last year several such announcements came from Tayan Energy for 1 GW solar power in Europe (see Chinese & Spanish JV To Build 1 GW Solar In Europe).