Foresight bags maiden EDF PPA deal for Spanish project

• Solar investor Foresight has penned a 10-year power purchase agreement with EDF Trading for a 50MW project in Spain.

The agreement, signed with EDF Group’s energy trading arm, will cover power generated from Foresight’s 50MW Guzman solar farm in Puebla de Guzman, in the south west of Spain.

It’s the fourth such PPA Foresight has signed but its first with EDF group, and Carlos Rey, director at Foresight, said securing a deal with the firm served as “further validation” of its investment model in the absence of subsidies.

The Guzman project, while essentially complete, is slated to be energised in Q1 2020, after which it is expected to generate some 85GWh of power each year.

It makes up part of a 116MW-strong portfolio of subsidy-free solar parks based in Iberia that are held by Foresight.

“This is an exciting occasion for EDFT to provide wholesale market services in the unsubsidised solar market in Spain.  We hope this will be the first of many opportunities for us to partner with Foresight,” Philipp Büssenschütt, chief commercial officer at EDF Trading, said.

Subsidy-free developments across Europe have accelerated in recent months, backed partly through such PPAs. Foresight itself said back in August that European subsidy-free markets have “developed rapidly” while noting a return to build-out phases in many countries.

Spain is amongst the leaders in the field and boasts significant development activity as the year draws to a close. Foresight’s Guzman project is one of a number nearing completion, while household names such as Iberdrola and Lightsource BP have made major moves to secure their corner of the Spanish PV market of late.