European solar companies Global EcoPower and T-Solar partner to expand operations in France

27 January 2010

French solar developer Global EcoPower has sealed an agreement with neighbouring Spanish solar installer T-Solar Group to jointly develop 120MW in France over the next three years.

The promotion, construction and operation of these photovoltaic plants will be through a joint venture between the companies called T-Sep, to be formed equally between Global EcoPower and T-Solar.

The French government recently published attractive feed-in-tariffs for ground and roof installations, with 20-year obligation to buy the production. Global EcoPower said the joint venture will benefit from the established regulatory framework in France for solar installations, in place during the next three years and that the two companies said they see the strategic alliance as benefiting and expediting their respective plans for growth.

As part of the agreement, the power plants promoted by this joint venture will be insured by the German Allianz company, through its subsidiary Allianz Climate Solutions.

T-Solar’s general manager, Juan Laso, said the company’s entry onto the French market comprises part of its ambitious international expansion plan set out up to the 2015 horizon line and contributes to bolster the company’s leadership worldwide on the photovoltaic-based clean electric power generation market.

Global EcoPower said the agreement between the two companies came about as a result of T-Solar identifying and looking to leverage Global EcoPower’s positioning in the French photovoltaic development market for its move into the French market.

Global EcoPower CEO, Jean Marie Santander, said, ‘Global EcoPower will benefit from T-Solar’s experience in building and operating photovoltaic projects on a turnkey basis.’

Santander described the agreement as expediting Global Ecopower’s development in French territory, given that T-Solar will be sharing its know-how and its relations with banking institutions and suppliers.

Karim Tamir, director of Business Development & Origination at Allianz Climate Solutions said, ‘This partnership will help to further reinforce solar power capacity in the French market and thereby contribute to national climate targets, whereby Global EcoPower will grant access to a large number of high value projects and T-Solar will provide its strong experience and know how as one of world largest independent solar power producers. In this regard, Allianz will contribute its insurance expertise to the project pipeline.’

Based in Aix en Provence, Global EcoPower said it has resolved to concentrate its activities on the development, construction and operation of solar projects in France and is currently developing 36 projects representing a potential installed capacity of 270 MWp, mainly in the South of France. The group’s strategy is to keep 50 per cent of the plants for its own account and to sell the remaining 50 per cent to third parties.

Since the T-Solar Group was first formed in 2007, it has built up to date an installed power capacity of 143.15MW through the 28 photovoltaic power plants it has developed, operating in Spain with a cumulative 218,860MWh output by the end of 2009. T-Solar also has another 14 photovoltaic power plants on which construction is currently nearing completion in Spain and Italy, which are expected to start operation during the first half of 2010, with an installed power base of 25MW.

Created in 2008, Global EcoPower is listed on the Marché Libre, New York Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris and on the Open Market (Freiverkehr) in Francfort. The company is developing solar power projects in the South of France and covers all development stages.

T-Solar has 28 photovoltaic power plants currently operating in Spain, with an installed power of 143.15MWp and has an additional 14 power plants in the development stage in Spain and Italy.

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Tags: solar

This story was published on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Europe, companies, solar. You can follow any responses to article entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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