Verbund, the Austrian electricity supplier, was the eventual buyer of 100% of the solar and wind project portfolio put on sale by Q-Energy in Spain, with the aim of creating cash flow and accelerating its investment in the renewables sector. The company has acquired a package of 4,582 megawatts in total.

The assets acquired are distributed between an 82 megawatt solar PV portfolio, which is operational, and a 4.5 gigawatt wind and solar PV platform, 2,100 megawatts of which are at an advanced stage of development. The remaining 2,400 megawatts are greenfield projects.

Strategic plan
The projects are spread over the whole of Spain, although the biggest share are in Castile-La Mancha and Andalusia. Verbund’s 2030 strategy aspires to significant growth in the production of renewables, with the aim of producing between 20% and 25% of the total electricity generated through solar PV systems and onshore wind farms by 2030.

Verbund arrived in Spain at the end of November 2021 with the 150 megawatt Illora project, and in March of this year it acquired 70% of four wind projects and one solar PV project implemented by Capital Energy, with a total capacity of 171 megawatts. The company has shown that this third transaction is another important step towards achieving its targets and attaining a position of leadership in the Spanish energy market.

Boosting renewables
Q-Energy, for its part, confirmed that the company, “faces a new cycle in its commitment to boosting renewables, both in Spain and internationally, working every day to achieve decarbonisation of the economy and energy independence”. They explained that this is the reason behind selling this portfolio, “to the largest electricity supplier in Austria” and “one of the main European electricity companies”.

The transaction, as Q-Energy stated in a message published on LinkedIn, “is framed within the company's new strategic plan, with the aim of accelerating energy transition with investments of 9 billion euros in renewable energy generation, storage and energy distribution projects up to 2025“.

^{Photo: Q-Energy}