German renewable energy project developer juwi AG and its Greek subsidiary juwi Hellas AE have entered into a sale and contract agreement with HELPE Renewables, for Greece’s largest renewable energy project to date, Project Kozani.
Project Kozani will also be among Europe’s five largest photovoltaic (PV) parks, and the largest in South-East Europe.
Located in north-western Greece, a total of EUR 130 million will be injected into the project. The transaction is due to close in the second quarter of 2020.
A team of lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright, including head of the Greek energy practice, Dimitris Assimakis, advised juwi AG and juwi Hellas AE on the deal.
Assimakis described the project in a statement as “the largest single-site renewable energy project developed to date in the country, a landmark transaction for the Greek renewable sector”.
In 2018, juwi Hellas constructed and put into operation a nine megawatt peak (MWp) PV plant, in central Greece, which was, at the time, the largest juwi plant and in fact “the first of its kind in Greece”, according to a statement by juwi Hellas’s managing director, Takis Sarris, at the time.
Two years on, Project Kozani is a much larger, 204.3 MWp solar PV power project.
After it has been put into operation, which it is anticipated will be in the fourth quarter of 2020, the project will save 300,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year.
“The project highlights the enormous potential of solar energy – not just in Greece but all over the world,” said Stephan Hansen, a member of juwi’s managing board, in a statement.
“This transaction demonstrates… the continuous growth of the solar power market in Greece,” added Assimakis, also stating that “this project exemplifies… the important role these regions can play in the achievement of the country’s ambitious goals for a cleaner and more sustainable environment in the years to come”.
In fact, a range of corporations are making conscious efforts to prioritise the use of renewable energy, such as Estée Lauder, which signed its largest renewable energy contract for the Ponderosa wind farm in Beaver County, Oklahoma, in November last year。
Also in November, Novasec raised EUR 80 million in funds for Spain’s largest onshore wind farm, Gecama. Deloitte advised on the deal.
In December 2019, the City of Sydney also entered into the largest renewable energy transaction entered into by any Australian council to date, a power purchase agreement with Flow Power, valued at USD 60 million.
