French energy company EDF Renewables has secured a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for a yet-to-be-built 60MW solar plant near Athens in Greece.

EDF Renewables

Image: EDF wins PPA for 60MW Greek solar project. Photo: Courtesy of EDF Renewables.

EDF stated that the PPA follows the mixed Renewable Energy Sources (RES) auction held by the Regulatory Authority for Energy (RAE). The Loutsa solar project will be built on 82 hectares of land in the Viotia region, close to Athens. It is due to be commissioned in 2022 and will be supported by the PPA, with a rate of €53/MWh.

The project is expected to bring EDF Renewables one step closer to its goal under the CAP 2030 strategy to double its renewable energy capacity around the world to 50GW between 2015 and 2030.

After entering the Greek market in 2005, EDF claims to have emerged as the fourth largest renewable energy player in the market, with an installed capacity of around 277MW, across 17 facilities.

Last month, EDF Renewables acquired LUXEL Group, a French independent solar energy company. LUXEL has a portfolio of 1GW projects in operation, ready to build and under development.

The deal is expected to accelerate EDF in growing its solar portfolio and bring it close towards achieving its Solar Plan, under which the company aims to establish itself as the market leader with at least 30% in market share between 2020 and 2035.

With this acquisition, EDF, which operates 320MW solar plants in France, will now be able to expand its portfolio by about 900MW. The deal will also bring 40 specialists working in LUXEL to EDF.

Earlier this year, the French energy company secured a contract to build 170MW solar plant in New York, US. The contract to build the Morris Ridge Solar Project was awarded by the the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) as part of the 2018 Renewable Energy Standard Solicitation.

The solar plant will be located on 1,000 acres of land in the Town of Mount Morris, south of the Village of Mount Morris and is expected to start generating electricity by the end of 2022.

The Morris Ridge Solar Project will generate enough electricity to power about 39,000 average New York homes, which avoiding nearly 140,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.