Austria's Verbund bags renewable portfolio in Spain

• The deal belongs to Verbund's strategy to generate 20-25 per cent of its electrical energy from photovoltaic or pv resources and offshore wind farms.

Austrian hydropower utility Verbund claimed on Monday it had obtained a portfolio of renewable resource assets in Spain from neighborhood exclusive equity fund Q-Energy for an undisclosed sum.

The assets include running photovoltaic power plants with an integrated capacity of 82 megawatts (MW) as well as projects intended to have an ultimate capacity of as much as 4,000 MW, the firm stated. All are located in Castille La Mancha in main Spain and sunny Andalusia in the south.

The bargain belongs to Verbund's plan to create 20-25 per cent of its electrical power from solar sources as well as offshore wind farms.

3 resources near the matter claimed the portfolio was valued at 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).

Energy business' appetite for eco-friendly assets is increasing amid pressure from financiers and also governments to tackle climate adjustment.

Competition for assets is increasing as ambitious green targets have pitched oil and also gas companies against typical utilities in the race for renewable power generation.

Oil major Shell as well as Spanish utility Naturgy were considering bids for the Q-Energy assets, the sources claimed last month.

In March this year, the Bavarian Minister of State for Energy, Hubert Aiwanger, satisfied reps of VERBUND for a "Bavarian-Austrian Energy Dialogue" in Vienna, consequently of which the business joined the Bavarian Hydrogen Alliance.

The Bavarian Hydrogen Alliance is a networking, understanding as well as interest platform of more than 240 hydrogen actors from company, scientific research as well as politics as well as is coordinated by the Hydrogen Centre Bavaria (H2.B).

In Bavaria, VERBUND is best referred to as the driver of hydropower plants on the Bavarian Inn and in the boundary regions of the Inn as well as Danube. The business creates around 5.8 billion kilowatt hrs of electricity in 21 power plants, of which around 4 billion kilowatt hours for Bavaria.