The promotion, construction and operation of these PV plants will be carried out through a joint venture called T-SEP and distributed evenly between Global Ecopower and T-Solar.
Global EcoPower CEO, Jean Marie Santander, describes the agreement reached as “expediting Global Ecopower’s development in French territory, given that T-Solar will be sharing its know-how and its relations with banking institutions and suppliers”. He also believes that “Global EcoPower will benefit from T-Solar’s experience in building and operating solar photovoltaic projects on a turnkey basis”.
The joint venture will benefit from the secured regulatory framework in France for solar plants, which will remain in force for the next three years. In January, the French Government officially published attractive feed-in-tariffs for ground (31.4c€/Kwh plus indexation) and rooftop installations (between 42c€ and 50c€/Kwh plus indexation), with an obligation to purchase the electricity generated for a 20 year period.
The two groups therefore consider this strategic alliance as benefiting and expediting their respective plans for growth. By virtue of the agreement, the power plants promoted by this joint venture will be assured by the german Allianz company, through its subsidiary Allianz Climate Solutions.
According to T-Solar, the working agreement between these two companies has come about as a result of T-Solar having identified in Global Ecopower “a professional team, with successfully background in the renewable energies sector which is well-positioned in the growing development of the French solar photovoltaic market”. Global EcoPower is currently developing 36 projects representing a potential installed capacity of 270 MWp, mainly in the South of France, with ground or roof-tops of greenhouses where land has already been secured and the permit process is ongoing. The group’s strategy is to keep 50% of the plants for its own account and to sell the remaining 50% to third parties.
T-Solar General Manager, Juan Laso, points out that the company’s entry into the French market is “part of the ambitious international expansion plan set out up to the 2015 horizon line” and “contributes to bolster the company’s leadership worldwide on the photovoltaic-based clean electric power generation market”.
143.15 MWp in operation
Since the T-Solar Group was first formed in 2007, it has developed 143.15 MWp of installed capacity through 28 photovoltaic power plants located in Spain with a cumulative 218,860 MWh output by the end of 2009.
In addition, T-Solar also has another 14 photovoltaic power plants under construction, which are expected to start operation during the first half of 2010, with an installed power base of 25 MWp. Six of these power plants are being built in Spain (17 MWp), and the other eight being built in Italy (8 MWp).
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