Europe Solar PV News Snippets

Germany's thermondo buys solar PV installer Febesol; Matrix raises financing for Spanish PV plants; Triple Point invests in UK's Ethical Power; Germany's Terra One raises $7.5 million; £10 million for UK's Harmony Energy. 

Febesol now part of thermondo: German heat pump installer thermondo has acquired solar PV system installer Febesol, calling it the next logical step for the company. It says 35% of its customers are interested in buying a PV system and a PV system can cover around 30% of the energy requirements of a heat pump, leading to major electricity cost savings for homeowners. The Founder and CEO of thermondo, Philipp Pausder says, "We want to make living for homeowners climate-neutral. The most important lever for this is the heat pump – and the best addition to this is a photovoltaic system. We want to offer homeowners all over Germany both from a single source and of the highest quality." Under thermondo group, Febesol will install heat pumps as well as solar PV systems as 35% of the former's customers are also interested in buying a PV system. 

Matrix raises €179 million: TPG Rise-backed Matrix Renewables has successfully closed a project financing of €179 million ($192 million) from Banco Sabadell. It plans to invest the proceeds to develop and construct 5 solar PV projects with a combined 239 MW capacity. These projects are located in the Palencia province of Castilla León and Badajoz province of Extremadura, Spain. Initial plants are scheduled to come online during Q1/2025. 

£3 million for Ethical Power: Purpose-led investment manager Triple Point has agreed to a £7 million debt facility for the UK's Ethical Power. It will support the development of the latter's early-stage solar and battery energy storage systems (BESS) in the UK. Ethical's current pipeline of renewable energy projects in the country represent 175 MW solar and 225 MW BESS along with more than 1 GW in construction and development globally. 

$7.5 million for German firm: BESS startup Terra One of Germany has raised $7.5 million in seed financing to scale up its business. The round was led by early-stage venture capital firm for real estate technologies PT1, and the early-stage investor of Commerzbank neosfer. Other financiers that participated in the round included 468 Capital, N26 cofounder Maximilian Tayenthal as well as the scout funds of Andreessen Horowitz and Hedosophia. Terra One's strategy aims to address the problem of energy loss due to grid congestion. It says in 2023 alone, Germany lost 19 TW of energy. It deploys lithium-ion batteries from companies like Tesla or CATL to store renewable energy generated during periods of low demand. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), it can deliver this energy to the grid at optimal times based on demand and energy prices. The company aims to use the proceeds to expand its workforce, develop its AI software and expand beyond Germany. 

Triodos supports RE company: Sustainable banking firm Triodos Bank has approved a credit facility of up to £10 million ($12.5 million) for utility-scale BESS, solar farms and wind assets company Harmony Energy. Operating across Europe and New Zealand, this UK-based company operates 516 MW of BESS capacity with another 268 MW under construction and touts a global pipeline of more than 11 GW. Harmony aims to use this credit facility to accelerate its development activities.