Canadian Solar, one of the most important global groups active in the solar sector, has created a joint venture (51% -49%) with the Verona-based Manni Energy, a Manni Group company active in the design, construction and management of renewable energy plants and energy efficiency, aimed at co-investing in photovoltaic systems to be built in Italy under the market parity regime without any form of incentive by the GSE (see here the press release).
The jv concurrently signed with Trailstone, the leading global trader and commodity investor, three power purchase agreements (PPAs), ie contracts for the purchase and sale of electricity, with a maturity of ten years and a fixed floor with a mechanism for sharing any updside, aimed at regulate the purchase and sale of all the electricity produced by a first portfolio of 5 photovoltaic plants of about 17.6 MW owned by the joint venture and under construction in Sicily near Agrigento in the market parity regime.
Orrick assisted Canadian Solar in the structuring of the JV and then assisted the JV in the subsequent negotiation and signing of the three PPA contracts. Trailstone was instead advised by the lawyers of Paul Hastings.
These are the first such long-term contracts signed in Italy. For example, a shorter contract was signed in recent days between the Octopus Investments fund and EGO Trade in relation to the 63 MW produced by the Montalto di Castro plant. In that case it is a 5 year PPA, which renewed a two-year agreement signed with EGO by the fund in 2017 and which provides a fixed price until September 2023 for both energy and the Guarantees of Origin, certificates issued by the Italian electricity supervisory authority GSE that certify the provenance from a renewable source. Last March EGO Trade had signed a 5-year PPA with Octopus in relation to the 40 MW produced by photovoltaic plants located in Sardinia, in the industrial area of Assemini, in the province of Cagliari (see here the press release).
Also in the last few days the first PPA was announced for the purchase of wind energy in Italy, signed between the British company Centrica and the Glennmont Partners fund in relation to 315 MW produced by 13 plants in Sicily and in Southern Italy (seehere the press release).
