Solterra ramping development activity across Germany, Poland & Italy; BESS growing part of pipeline

Solterra Renewable Energy is aiming to take its 111 MWp Melz solar PV project in Germany to ready-to-build within the next 12-18 months, at which point it will look to sell on the project, while it is also progressing project pipelines in both Italy and Poland.

The Israel-based group, which launched in 2022, secured EUR 2m in finance from cleantech group N2OFF and private investors earlier in August in order to bring forward the Mecklenburg-West Pomerania-located project, in addition to agreeing a right of first offer for the backer to provide up to EUR 6m in additional finance for further German solar PV developments it sources.

Solterra is “now working on a few further good prospects together with N2OFF” in the German solar PV market, and intends to pay local developers to bring forward projects to RTB in return for sharing in the upside at final sale, company co-chief executive Eran Litvak told NPM Europe in an interview.

In Italy, Solterra has to date focused on solar development in the north-east of the country, but is now starting to develop in the Lazio region too.

“We have around 100 MW of sub 10-MW solar projects at mid-stage of development, which we are co-developing with Italian financial investor Alternative Capital Partners,” Litvak said.

He added: “An initial batch of projects should reach RTB by late 2024-early 2025."

The group has also in recent weeks signed land agreements for two Italian BESS projects which it estimates should allow for two 50 MW / 200 MWh projects, although grid connection offers are still pending, and the final size of each project could vary.

The group is also active in Poland, where it currently has around 82 MW of solar PV at a mid-stage of development, and “will be onboarding new land agreements through its local development team over coming months,” Litvak said.

In addition, Solterra earlier in the summer signed a deal with a UK-based investor through which it will develop a 400 MW BESS portfolio in the country on their behalf. It will then receive part of the proceeds when the projects are sold at RTB.

“We are aiming to have secured land agreements for 100 MW - 200 MW of Polish BESS projects by the end of 2024 and a similar amount by mid-2025…it will then take 1–2 years to bring the projects to RTB,” Litvak said.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM Europe subscribers.

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