The Chinese photovoltaic energy giant, the company China Three Gorgescloses the year by announcing the acquisition of the Mula plant, in Murciawhich with an installed capacity of 494 Mwp is one of the largest solar energy projects in all of Europe. With this operation, the multinational extends its presence in Spainwhere one already had facilities twenty provinces in Andalusia, Extremadura, Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, Comunitat Valenciana and Catalonia, with a joint installed power equivalent to 8% of all installed photovoltaic power.
China Three Gorges Corporation is the largest developer and operator of hydropower of the world and the main clean energy group in China and has made this purchase from the investment platform Qualitas Energythrough its subsidiary in Spain, which represents its large market in Europe, where it also has a presence much lower in Germany, the United Kingdom and Greece.
The Mula photovoltaic plant is in the Region of Murcia and was built in 2019 by the Cobra groupwhen it became the largest project in all of Europe. After a refinancing operation in 2023, its until now owner, Qualitas Energy, leaves it with a signed contract for the sale of the energy it generates (PPA) to another international company with a duration of 10 years.
Presence in more than 20 provinces
This operation reflects how renewable deployment is partly developing in Spain, with a great “investment appetite” of multinationals that buy plants already operational, ready to do so or under construction from project developers. But it is also one more step in the expansion of the Chinese giant in Spainwhich began in 2021 with the first acquisition of parks already in operation and which until now has particularly photovoltaic but also wind for an installed power of 1,880 Mwp, to which are now added 494 Mwp of the Mule. China is not only the world leader in the manufacture of solar panels and all types of components for renewable energy, but also a very powerful investment player throughout the world.
With almost 500 MWp, the one in Murcia recently purchased a large plant. To give us an idea, the autonomous communities only process installations of up to 50Mw and from there the procedures must pass to the central government. Last October, there were in Spain 28,691 MW of photovoltaic energy installed, so that China’s presence in solar parks and, to a lesser extent, wind farms, equals 8.2%.
With this latest acquisition, it is still subject to the usual authorization processes that Qualitas Energy estimates that They will be completed in the first quarter of 2025, China Three Gorges Corporation will now have six portfolios of renewable projects in Spain. The first one was purchased in 2021 and consists of 13 photovoltaic plants in operation totaling 572 Mwp distributed throughout Segovia, Badajoz, Ciudad Real, Albacete, Seville, Almería and Murcia.
Also that year he acquired other three wind plants operational since 2008 in Burgos, Palencia and La Rioja for 400 megawatts of installed power, plus another 4 Mwp from a solar plant in La Rioja.
In 2022 it made three more purchases in Spain, the last ones until the current acquisition of the Murcia park. He bought, on the one hand, two wind installations, in Cádiz (181 Mwp) and Tarragona (17 Mwp) and two other photovoltaic portfolios. One formed by 27 plants in the provinces of Cáceres, Badajoz, Huelva, Seville, Córdoba, Jaén, Granada, Almería, Alicante, Ciudad Real and Toledo. They total an installed power of 619 Mw, of which only 153 are operational, while facilities are under construction that will add another 52 and others with a capacity of 414 Mw are in “advanced development”. The other, three plants in Cáceres with an installed power of 104.5 Mw.
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