Solar developer Procon Solar GmbH has sold a 400MW PV project pipeline to German energy company EnBW, with the potential for this to double over the next year as EnBW targets 50% of renewables in its generation mix by 2025.
Procon Solar has agreed to hand over of 400MW of PV projects in advanced stages of development in the Eastern German state of Brandenburg to EnBW on 1 July, with a further 400MW of early-stage projects potentially following by February 2023.
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As part of the deal, nine employees will move from Procon Solar to EnBW to help support the further development of the sites and EnBW will retain Procon Solar’s office in the city of Cottbus.
EnBW currently has a 2.5GW PV pipeline, with the above additions potentially taking this up to 3.3GW, a jump of 25%, as the company aims to hit a target of 50% of renewables in it generation portfolio by 2025.
EnBW’s head of renewable energies, Harald Schmoch, said the company was “firmly committed to Brandenburg”. It has three existing solar parks in Weesow-Willmersdorf, Gottesgabe and Alttrebbin with a combined capacity of roughly 500MW, which Schmoch said were “all built without state funding”.
“We wish to continue to play an active role in shaping the structural change of the energy-producing region,” he added.
EnBW and Procon solar have worked together in the past. In 2018, EnBW took over the 187MW Weesow-Willmersdorf solar park from Procon Solar and developed the site until it was fully connected to the grid in March 2021.
Managing director and partner of Procon Solar, Klaus Hoff, said EnBW was a “strong partner” for the energy transition and that EnBW’s regional roots and “leading knowledge of the energy industry” were “decisive factors” in the companies continuing to work together.
Thorsten Jörß, responsible for PV project development at EnBW, said while there were still “hurdles to overcome together before the individual projects are approved and can be built”, the company was committed to greater solar deployment as part of German’s energy strategy.
In April, Germany’s government said it was going to slash red tape for new renewables projects as part of a new package of measures that included a target of reaching 215GW of solar installed by 2030, up on the coalition government’s previous 200GW aim. As of year-end 2021, the country had 59GW of deployed solar.
