Switzerland based electricity utility Axpo plans to grow its solar power portfolio, about 20 times its size today, to 10 GW by 2030, with an initial 4 GW to be developed in the markets of Spain, Italy and Poland.
Deployment of this 10 GW capacity is planned to cover some 10,000 hectares of surface including vehicle parking lots, large rooftops, greenhouses and facilities already in use. Currently, the group says it markets about 19.7 GW of solar and wind energy for its customers across Europe.
"The Axpo Group's substantial know-how in this area covers the entire solar value chain – from plant planning and construction to the marketing of solar power," said Axpo's Head of Renewables, Christoph Sutter. "This enables us to continue growing in important markets such as Spain, Italy and Poland." In Poland, it recently signed up to procure 300 MW solar power capacity from R.Power (see Axpo To Offtake 300 MW Solar In Poland).
For the 4 GW capacity, it says solar projects are already under development in the 3 countries and expected to create around 100 jobs over the next 18 months. In other countries like France where it is present through subsidiary Urbasolar, Axpo said it is researching the feasibility of setting up similar projects.
The Swiss utility also has plans for its home turf where it expects to develop around 200 MW of approximately 10,000 new solar plants by 2030. In Switzerland, Axpo operates through its solar subsidiary CKW in the rooftop PV space.