News Article
REC completes and sells four solar installations on Sardinia
REC, a global provider of solar electricity solutions, has developed, constructed, financed and sold four solar power installations in Villacidro (4,986 kW), Pischedda (996.4 kW), Ulmos (901.6 kW) and Lula (990 kW) on Sardinia, making a total capacity of 7.87 MW.
The four ground-mounted solar plants have been sold to IKAV Global Energy S.a.r.l., an investment arm of the Luxembourg Investment Fund IKAV SICAV FIS. The company acquires European solar plants and its stakeholders are European insurances and pension funds. The investment advisor is ecoprime GmbH in Hamburg, which supported the Fund in the identification, selection and sales negotiation processes.
"A good Return on Investment (ROI) is key in selecting solar investments. Looking at the track record of REC as a solar provider worldwide, the quality and performance of the REC installations on Sardinia make this a very sound investment for the Fund," says Constantin von Wasserschleben, Director at IKAV.
The latest projects, which comprise approximately 31,000 REC solar panels, are now on grid, producing 12.5 MWh of solar energy every year for use in Sardinian households. The installations were planned, developed and built by the Systems business of REC, which has already deployed its expertise in delivering over 130 MW turnkey solar installation projects to investors and clients around the world.
Both of the latest Sardinia installations are ground-mounted, using a combination of high performing REC 245 and 255 Peak Energy solar panels, and together cover an area of approximately 16 hectares of land. The installations benefit the environment not just in terms of reducing the CO2 footprint; two previously unused tracts of land are now being deployed for sustainable purposes to generate clean, green solar energy.
"We are pleased to be continuing our involvement in the solar power industry in Italy with the installations on Sardinia. Together, the four Sardinian installations we've developed and built have a total power output of just under on 8,000 KWp," says Matthias Ermer, Managing Director, REC Systems. "Excellent collaboration with local partners and stakeholders throughout the development and construction process made it possible to realize this project in a very short timeframe."
These latest projects reflect REC's commitment to being fully involved in key markets in Europe. Italy, with its high solar irradiation, steadily rising electricity prices and solid record of experience with solar power, remains a viable location long term for solar installations going forward, even if the investment climate becomes tighter following expiry of the Conto Energia 5 feed-in tariff.
"Italy has reached the end of the feed-in tariff era for solar power, and we expect the market will be driven by the new tax credit scheme, which will then be attractive for smaller system sizes up to 200 kW," comments Matthias Ermer. REC, with its latest project, has reinforced its already strong reputation as a turnkey provider of solar power installations and is ideally positioned for new opportunities in this evolving and other European markets.
