An Italian buys PV Proponent Renovalia from a Spanish Merchant

• Spain’s renewable credentials have attracted the eye of an Italian infrastructure investor. Already, the Italian has acquired a PV Developer and the merchant projects it was working on.

F2i- a fund manager based in Milan said that they had a signed an agreement mandating them to take over the Spanish renewable developer. In the deal, the Renovalia Energy Group owner Cerberus Capital Management will relinquish ownership to the new Italian investor. 

According to F2i, the acquisition of Renovalia opens the way for entry into the Spanish PV ecosystem. Already, the buyer owns 853 MW solar portfolios in Italy and is focused on adding another 1 GW through Renovalia.  In a press release, F2i said that the new 1GW includes the already running plants that are generating 102MW in nine installations and other  850 MW projects that are being developed in Spain. 

In the statement, the investor who is also investing through the EF Solar subsidiary shared the reasons for venturing into the Spanish Solar. He said that Spain is working towards installing a PV that will produce 37GW of power by 2030. This, according to him makes The Southern Eastern State a viable country for PV projects. 

According to the statement, the authorization of Spain’s grid connection process is bureaucratic. However, the government has approved legislation that will extend the regulated activity's current remuneration rate for 12 years. He said that this will create a favorable and stable environment for PV projects.  Meanwhile, the Italian group has described the takeover of the supposedly fourth-largest PV developer in Spain as important and strategic.

The last time Renovalia ownership changed hands was in 2016 when Cerberus an equity outfit bought it from co-owners Ortemar SL and Ortega Martinez family.  The Italian owner will use Renovalia to deploy the Merchant-only PV project in Spain. It is a good endorsement which implies that the subsidy-free Spanish market that has been stifled for many years is ready for PV projects. 

In August, Banco Sabadell Spain’s top bank with over €220-billion worth of assets agreed to fund Renovalia to undertake a 79.2 MW PV pipeline in Ciudad Real province. Renovalia will undertake the project without PPA and auctions support.