At the end of December, British renewable energy producer Ventient Energy announced the acquisition of a package of assets in Castile-León - with a total capacity of 443 megawatts. As Ventient specialises in wind power, the interesting thing here is that more than half of the new production will come from hybrid solar PV sources.

Specifically, the purchase agreement involves 203 megawatts of onshore wind energy and the future construction of 240 megawatts of hybrid solar energy, which will be installed in locations where the company already has established wind power production sites. 'Hybrid' essentially means that the two energy sources will be combined in a single facility in order to guarantee output, each complementing the other.

Speaking about the initiative, Ventient Energy CEO Mark Jones explained “We’re already expanding our business by creating state-of-the-art hybrid plants alongside our existing wind farms. These will provide the most efficient supply of renewable energy for each location. Over time, we expect our business to evolve even more”.

Rapid growth
The new agreement will increase the company's capacity to two gigawatts in Iberia, and 790 megawatts in Spain. Ventient Energy came into being in 2017 in the United Kingdom, and has had a strong presence in Portugal since acquiring Iberwind, which at the time had 31 wind farms and 726 megawatts of installed capacity in the neighbouring country, in 2020. The current figures are an indication of the rapid growth of its renewables portfolio in just five years.

Today, in addition to Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, Ventient owns and operates onshore wind farms in Belgium, France and Germany. Thanks to this latest operation, its installed wind capacity now stands at 2.8 gigawatts, making it, by its own estimation, the largest independent onshore wind power producer on the continent.

New opportunities
The seller is Vapat Inversiones Empresariales, a company based in the Castile-León region of Spain. The sale is expected to be completed early this year, subject to regulatory approval. In the meantime, Ventient, whose shareholders  include pension funds, plans to explore new growth opportunities in the renewable energy field, something it is already doing with hybrid solar PV plants.

Jones sees the acquisition as a major step forward, “It reinforces our strong commitment to the Spanish energy system, and strengthens our relationships with the communities and authorities in the Castile-León region.” He also values its relevance within the business the company is building in Europe, in which it claims to be a leader in ESG, the environmental, social and corporate governance criteria that qualify an investment to be classed as sustainable and responsible.

^{Photo: Ventient Energy}