All five of the supplying parks belong to the company’s 199 MW Aragón portfolio near Zaragoza, where wind accounts for the larger share of capacity. Under the contract, Visalia will receive power from both wind and solar.
Complementary generation
The deal is structured as a hybrid power purchase agreement (PPA). Because the generation profiles of solar and wind complement each other across the day and the seasons, the combined portfolio delivers a more balanced supply profile than either could manage separately. Encavis also sees the contract as part of a strategic shift. “Spain is one of our most important markets, and this agreement marks a further step in the transformation of our business,” said Mario Schirru, CEO of Encavis.
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Encavis plans to use contracts of this kind to tailor supply more closely to customers’ needs, combining wind and solar generation with structured electricity deliveries. “The PPA with Visalia shows how we are putting this approach into practice,” said Schirru.
A buyer with its own grid
Visalia both generates and distributes power, with more than 500 urban green power installations and over 1,000 km of electricity and fibre-optic networks. The company says the PPA diversifies its renewable sourcing at a time when its customer base is expanding. “The agreement with Encavis reinforces our strategy of providing comprehensive energy supply to private customers, homeowner associations and SMEs,” said Alejandro Tejero-Garcés, Managing Director of Visalia.
Round-the-clock green power
Wind generation also covers the night-time hours, when Visalia’s distributed solar capacity is offline. “By combining locally generated solar power from our solar neighbourhoods, known as barrios solares, with wind power, we can also supplement our energy supply at night and move towards a more efficient, sustainable and competitive energy model,” says Tejero-Garcés.
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Encavis operates solar and wind parks in Spain with a total capacity of 1 GW. These include the Talayuela (300 MW) and La Cabrera (200 MW) solar parks, two of Europe’s first large-scale projects built without state subsidies, as well as the Aragón wind farms (150 MW). The company recently opened an office in Madrid to expand its customer and origination business in southern Europe. (nhp)
