Statkraft completed five-year PPAs for the power and capacity certificates from French developer Valeco‘s Audincthun (14.1 MW), Belleuse (11 MW), and Lavacquerie (15.4 MW) wind projects.
The sites are due for commissioning in May and September 2019, and are located in the Pas de Calais, Somme and Oise departments, respectively, in northern France.
Valeco will operate the wind farms from its operations centre in Montpellier, with support from technicians based in Amiens.
The agreements follow a PPA at Valeco‘s 36.6MW Prémont wind farm, which has been running since summer 2018.
"With these purchase agreements, recognised by the main financing banks, Statkraft contributes to the financing of new installations and facilitates the further expansion of renewable power in France," said Clément Perchat, Statkraft's business developer for France.
The French deals came close on the heels of a long-term PPA between Statkraft and Fortia Energia, a Spanish energy-sourcing platform for large industrial consumers.
Over the ten-year contract, Statkraft will supply 3TWh of renewable electricity to Fortia, which manages the power supply to the steel, cement, metallurgy, chemical, paper and industrial gases sectors.
Elsewhere, Statkraft‘s PPA business in Germany was launched in December 2019 with an arrangement with car maker Mercedes-Benz for electricity from six wind farms totalling 46MW that will leave the German support system in 2021.
Statkraft says it is Europe‘s largest provider of market access for, mainly, renewables generation, amounting to 18.2GW.
Roughly 11.8GW of this total is in Germany alone, with 90% of that coming from wind capacity. Elsewhere in the world it markets another 3.8GW.
After divesting all offshore wind activities, Statkraft is expanding in onshore wind, solar and hydropower, offering flexibility in electricity marketing by combining wind and solar with its own hydro and gas generation facilities.
Statkraft‘s 2GW onshore wind portfolio is due to grow to 6GW by 2025, two-thirds of the growth to be in Europe.
Where possible, Statkraft aims to develop, build and commission the capacity itself, subsequently divesting up to 49% of the projects, but will also pursue merger and acquisition opportunities in France, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Germany, said Stefan-Jörg Göbel, Statkraft‘s senior vice president of wind and solar.
