- ib Vogt’s 149 MW Garnacha solar power plant in Spain begins construction
- The project sees ib Vogt collaborating with Google under a 12-year PPA
- A long-term financing facility of EUR 90 million has been provided for this project
- On completion the plant will be able to provide electricity equal to the needs of about 85,000 households
Germany based ib vogt announced that the construction of its 149 MW Garnacha solar power plant in Zamora, Spain has begun. With an investment of EUR 118 million, this plant is one of ib vogt’s significant projects contributing towards Spain’s renewable energy sector.
With this project, ib vogt has also got into its first major collaboration with Google by signing a power purchase agreement for a period of 12 years.
Speaking about the collaboration, Marc Oman, Infrastructure & Energy Principal at Google said, “We are delighted to work with ib vogt to add new clean energy to the grid while significantly improving Google’s carbon footprint in Spain. By 2025, and with help from ib vogt’s Garnacha project, Google’s Spanish cloud region and offices will operate on carbon-free energy nearly 90 percent of the time.”
A long-term financing facility of EUR 90 million has been provided by Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (NORD/LB) and Santander Corporate & Investment Banking (Santander CIB). Garnacha solar power plant is also part of the iv vogt’s IPP platform that owns and operates solar PV and battery storage projects based on projects from the companies’ Development, EPC and O&M activities. The plant is expected to be completed within 12 months and put into commercial operation by October 2023.
Located near Toro city in northwest of Spain and spread across 224 hectares of land, the plant will have over than 270,000 solar panels built on north-south single-axis trackers to ensure optimal performance. With an annual output of 300 GWh, the panels will be able to provide electricity to about 85,000 households and will save up to 50,000 tons of CO2 per year.
Speaking about this, CEO of ib vogt Anton Milner said, “We are pleased to have broken ground for yet another major project in Spain, contributing towards the country’s own renewable electricity targets and doing our part to power the energy transition. We are also excited to be working together with Google and contributing to their important environmental objectives. Thanks to the outstanding support of the local, regional, and national administrative bodies and our partners at NORD/LB and Santander CIB, we were able to pursue an aggressive project development and financing timeline and look forward to adding more clean solar energy to the Spanish electricity market.”
Global Head of Structured Finance at NORD/LB Heiko Ludwig stated, “The development of ib vogt‘s Garnacha power project and the successful closing of the project financing is a great example of the combined power of different industries like renewable energy, global tech and financial services working together to achieve a contribution towards the green transition of the economy. We are very proud to play a part in this and are glad to continue NORD/LB’s growth in the promising Iberian renewable energy market.”
Echoing similar sentiments, European Head of Structure Finance at Santander CIB Bartholomew White said, “We are proud to be supporting our clients through the green transition and look forward to many more projects to help us achieve our net zero targets and continue reinforcing our leadership in the renewables sector.”
In April, ib vogt and Quantum Power Asia had launched a new JV to develop more than 3.5 GW solar PV and 12 GWh storage capacity in Indonesia’s Riau Islands (see Singaporean JV For 3.5 GW Solar & 12 GWh Storage)
