Exus to Develop 85 MW Wind-Solar Hybrid Project in Portugal

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Exus Management Partners has announced that it will develop an 85 MW wind and solar hybrid project in northern Portugal. The renewables-focused independent investment and asset management firm has been chosen by an undisclosed third party to provide the complete end-to-end delivery of the country’s first third-party wind and solar hybrid project. Since no developers offered a comparable service package, the company was chosen without a competitive bidding process.

Portugal and Spain are among many European countries which have committed support to hybrid projects for adding extra green capacity to their respective grids so as to improve reliability of production. At present, two big challenges before the global renewables sector are power generation intermittency and the development of grid connection points. Hybrid projects-  such as a solar PV project built in conjunction with an operational wind farm- can enable owners to capitalise on pre-existing infrastructure and generate power with more consistency than independent solar or wind projects do. Exus states that it is one of the early adopters in the Portuguese market.

The company has said that it will be leading on every phase of project development on behalf of the third-party investor, such as project design, asset management, power purchase agreement (PPA) and procurement and construction (EPC) negotiations, etc. It claims that its data-driven approach and technology-agnostic tools will provide the project’s owners with full oversight of the performance of both the solar and wind elements. Though it is not clear how the 85MW of total capacity will be split between wind and solar, the hybrid plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.

Carlos Tello Garcia, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Exus, said: “Hybrid solar and wind projects represent a significant opportunity to optimise the grid. We expect to see a boom in development across Europe once supporting regulations are put in place. This scheme represents the next step in Portuguese renewable energy development, and we are proud to be at the forefront of innovation in the sector.”

Currently, Exus’ capacity is more than 5 GW, and the Madrid-headquartered company’s offices are spread across Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, the US, Mexico and Brazil.

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