Stellantis acquires 49.5% stake in Argentine solar company

Automaker Stellantis said it will acquire a 49.5% stake in Argentine PV power producer 360 Energy Solar through a $100 million investment.

Stellantis said the two parties will develop new solar plants, install large-scale storage systems, and produce hydrogen energy.

Work will begin by expanding renewable energy at Stellantis’ Ferreyra and El Palomar plants in the Argentine provinces of Cordoba and Buenos Aires, which are both powered by 360 Energy Solar’s La Rioja PV plant.

Stellantis makes and sells Citroen, Fiat and Peugeot vehicles in Argentina. The company said the investment represents an important step toward its goal of energy autonomy, as it works to achieve carbon neutrality by 2038.

“Our goal of offering clean, safe and affordable mobility challenges us to rethink every part of our operations and the infrastructure that supports us,” said Emanuele Cappellano, the president of Stellantis for South America. “A sustainable electric mobility ecosystem is not possible without available clean energy.”

360 Energy Solar currently owns six PV plants in the provinces of San Juan, Catamarca and La Rioja, with an installed generating capacity of more than 250 MW. It said it has another 500 MWp of projects in the pipeline in Argentina.

“We are convinced that solar energy will lead the global energy transition,” said 360 Energy CEO Federico Sbarbi Osuna. “This new path that we are embarking on together with Stellantis will allow us to accelerate our growth plans in Argentina and expand our operations to other countries in Latin America and Europe, consolidating ourselves as a leading player in the energy transition.”

In December 2022, Stellantis signed what was then the second-largest corporate power purchase agreement in US history, to procure 400 MW of new solar in the state of Michigan.

Earlier this year, pv magazine reported that Argentina had hit 1.36 GW of PV capacity by the end of 2023.