Allianz acquires 46 MW subsidy-free project in Portugal

The Ourika project was developed by WElink Group and has been fully operational since June. It was inaugurated in July, where it was hailed as Europe’s largest subsidy-free project.

Allianz has now entered into a 20 year fixed price power purchase agreement with Ourika to purchase the generated electricity. It should supply around 23,000 average households with electricity annually.

WElink and its partner China Triumph International Engineering Company (CTIEC) invested around €40 million in the 46 MW plant, which covers 100 hectares and comprises 142,000 PV panels.

“Whilst Ourika will always be the first subsidy-free solar project developed in the Iberian Peninsula, our focus now switches to our next project Solara4, the 221 MW project being developed in Alcoutim. We are targeting completion of this project in Q3 2019. Beyond this we are committed to achieving our 1GW target for development in Iberia by 2020,” said John Murphy, CEO at WElink Energy.

To date, the Portuguese Government has approved more than 750 MW of “unsubsidized” solar projects, with another 2.2 GW currently under review.

The first two deals were secured by local developer Hyperion, which in January signed a 10 year PPA for a 28.8 MW solar plant in Evora with local power distributor Axpo Iberia, a unit of Switzerland-based Axpo Group. The deal immediately attracted attention, and in mid-March, French financial group Natixis acquired the project via its unit, Natixis Global Asset Management.