Photon Energy Group, a Dutch solar project developer and asset owner, has announced the completion of two solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Romania. These projects have a combined capacity of 9.5MWp and are located near Aiud and Teiuș in Romania's Alba county. Each of the power plants is equipped with approximately 8,700 solar modules and with bifacial solar modules mounted on single-axis trackers, the plants are expected to deliver a combined capacity of 13.9GWh annually to the grid managed by Distribuție Energie Electrică Romania.
What sets these projects apart is that Photon Energy will sell the energy generated by the plants on a merchant basis, without any support or power purchase agreement with an energy off-taker. Georg Hotar, CEO of Photon Energy Group, believes that the plants will generate a combined €2 million (US$2.19 million) in revenue based on the current forward prices for electricity base load in Romania in the next 12 months.
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He said, “Following the energisation of our first four plants in Romania, the commissioning of the power plants in Aiud and Teiuș represents another important milestone for Photon Energy in the Romanian renewable energy market, where we plan to commission an additional capacity of around 10MWp, expanding our independent power producer (IPP) portfolio to over 120MWp in the coming weeks.”
Apart from these projects in Romania, the Photon Energy Group is developing utility-scale solar PV projects with a combined capacity of over 950MWp in Australia and its key central and eastern Europe markets, including over 240MWp in Romania. The remaining Romanian projects in the development pipeline are expected to be built and commissioned in 2023 and 2024.
In March, the company also closed a €21.9 million non-recourse project refinancing agreement for eight power plants in Romania with a total installed capacity of 31.5MWp. The five-year agreement, closed with Raiffeisen Bank International in Austria, was the company's first project financing of European PV assets that operated on a merchant basis, selling energy to a market without a power purchase agreement (PPA) or state support.
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As the energy market continues to shift towards renewable energy sources, companies like Photon Energy are playing a critical role in advancing the adoption of solar power. By selling energy on a merchant basis, without any support or power purchase agreement with an energy off-taker, they are demonstrating that solar power can compete in the open market on its own merits. This is a significant milestone for the industry and a testament to the ongoing advancements in solar technology.
