Allianz to acquire the largest solar project in Portugal
Allianz Capital Partners on behalf of Allianz insurance companies (Allianz) has signed the acquisition of the 218.8-megawatt (MW) Solara project in Portugal. Construction works for Solara have already started.
The commissioning of the project is planned for summer 2019.
After the acquisition of Iberia’s first subsidy free solar farm in Ourique, Portugal in October this year, Solara is the second investment in a solar project without public subsidies for Allianz.
Solara is located in Southern Portugal, around 230 km south-east of Lisbon.
Portugal is one of the leading European countries in producing clean energy with more than 50 percent of energy coming from wind, solar and hydro. Solara will be the largest solar project in Portugal.
With its capacity of 218.8 MW Solara can provide renewable energy for approximately 100,000 average households of the region per year. This would be sufficient to supply a city the size of Porto with energy for one year.
Solara is an important project for the area of Vaqueiros that is recently impacted by declining population. The project will bring economic benefit to the area, and 1,500 people will be employed on site through construction.
Solara has agreed terms for a 20-year fixed price power purchase agreement (PPA).
“Allianz is one of the leading investors in renewable energies in Europe as we aim to lead our industry in integrating ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) factors into our investment businesses. This is already our second investment in Portugal in the subsidy free area in combination with a PPA. We are delighted to partner again with WElink on this attractive solar project. With our 9th solar investment Solara we will have more than 90 projects in our renewable portfolio,” says Marc Groves-Raines, Head of Renewables at Allianz Capital Partners.
Allianz equity investments in the renewable energy sector amount to 9 solar farms and 83 wind parks located in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and the United States. The wind and solar parks of Allianz generate enough renewable energy to supply over a million households.
About Allianz Capital Partners
Allianz Capital Partners is the Allianz Group’s asset manager for alternative equity investments and is part of Allianz Global Investors. With offices in Munich, London, Luxembourg, New York and Singapore, Allianz Capital Partners manages approximately 25 billion euros of alternative assets. Its investment focus is on private equity, infrastructure and renewable energy.
About Allianz
The Allianz Group is one of the world’s leading insurers and asset managers with more than 88 million retail and corporate customers. Allianz customers benefit from a broad range of personal and corporate insurance services, ranging from property, life and health insurance to assistance services to credit insurance and global business insurance. Allianz is one of the world’s largest investors, managing over 650 billion euros on behalf of its insurance customers while its asset managers Allianz Global Investors and PIMCO manage an additional 1.4 trillion euros of third-party assets. Thanks to its systematic integration of ecological and social criteria in its business processes and investment decisions, Allianz holds the leading position for insurers in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. In 2017, over 140,000 employees in more than 70 countries achieved total revenue of 126 billion euros and an operating profit of 11 billion euros for the group.
