Over a year after it came online, Germany's 'largest' solar power plant commissioned by energy supplier EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG has secured its maiden power purchase agreement (PPA). Materials manufacturer Covestro has signed up to receive 63 MW capacity from 187 MW Weesow-Willmersdorf Solar Farm.
The Brandenburg located solar power farm was built as the Germany's largest solar farm without subsidies under the Renewables Energy Sources Act (EEG) and injected 1st power to the grid in November 2020 (see First Power Into Grid For Germany's Largest PV Park).
For Covestro, it is the company's maiden solar PPA in Europe since it has already built a portfolio of various renewable PPAs in Germany, Belgium and China. Covestro is also present in the solar supply chain after it bought solar coatings business from Royal DSM in 2020 (see Dutch Chemicals Company Exits Solar Coatings Business).
Under the agreement signed for 15 years, Covestro will source solar power for its sites in Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen where it produces mass-balanced plastics using drop-in process using alternative raw materials, including mass-balanced polycarbonates and thermoplastic polyurethanes. These are used to produce car headlamps, household products and have other industrial applications. The PPA will kick into effect from the beginning of 2022.
"PPAs are an important tool for making subsidy-free generating assets commercially viable. They are also pivotal to the energy transition, as they help industrial consumers achieve their climate targets quickly and efficiently," said COO Generation & Trading at EnBW, Dr. Georg Stamatelopoulos. "This makes PPAs particularly attractive for companies with energy-intensive production."
EnBW said it will further step up renewable energy marketing activities in 2022, for the 187 MW project as well as for 2 other large scale subsidy-free projects with 150 MW capacity each , Gottesgabe and Alttrebbin' that are currently under construction (see EnBW Building 300 MW Subsidy Free Solar In Germany).