German energy leviathan RWE, a leading power producer in the UK, has signed its first solar Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in Britain.
Benefitting for at least 10 years will be the UK subsidiary of Kerry Group, the global supplier of nutrition ingredients. The deal will meet at least half of the company’s electricity consumption.
The agreement is structured as two separate financial pay-as-produced PPA deals. It commits capacity from two of RWE’s imminent solar farms, Cotmoor in Nottinghamshire and Copse Lodge in Northamptonshire.
Each has a potential capacity of 49.9MWp. Construction of the Cotmoor farm begins this year, with Copse Lodge expected to follow in 2025.
Olaf Lubenow, RWE’s head of trading solutions covering the UK: “Solar power is one of the quickest and easiest renewable technologies to deploy, and can quickly make a significant contribution to the UK’s energy system.
“Through the build-out and operation of our UK portfolio of over 4.4GW of solar, our clean electricity can help even more businesses like Kerry Group to decarbonise for the future by sourcing clean green electricity for years to come.
“We’re delighted to be able to support the transition of businesses away from fossil fuel-sourced electricity and to be making a meaningful contribution to the UK’s net zero ambitions.”
Juan Aguriano, Kerry’s global head of sustainability added: “Kerry intends to reduce our combined Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions by 55% by 2030 and achieve Net Zero by 2050.
“PPAs represent a key pillar of Kerry’s renewable energy strategy to deliver on these commitments.
The agreements with RWE are Kerry’s first PPAs in the UK and represent approximately 50% of Kerry’s electricity volume used in the country. We look forward to supporting more projects like these in the future in Europe and around the world.”
Essen-headquartered RWE seeks to commission on average 450MWp of new solar and storage projects in Britain every year. It is committed to investing 8 billion euros every year this decade in support of its Growing Green strategy.
The company was the most successful solar developer in last year’s Allocation Round 5 for Contracts for Difference, securing agreements for six UK solar projects.
