Photon Energy breaks ground on 7.1 MWp power plant in Romania

Photon Energy announces that it has broken ground on the construction of its seventh Romanian PV power plant, which will have a generation capacity of 7.1 MWp. Located near Sahateni in the county of Buzau, the power plant will extend over 10 hectares of greenfield land and will be equipped with some 12,700 solar panels.

High-efficiency bifacial solar modules mounted on single-axis trackers will deliver around 11.4 GWh of renewable energy annually to the grid of SDEE Electrica Muntenia Nord. The electricity generated will be sold on the energy market on a merchant basis, without any governmental support or a power purchase agreement with an energy offtaker. The new power plant is scheduled to commence operations in the fourth quarter of 2022.

‘We are very excited to continue breaking ground in Romania, one of our key CEE markets, executing our growth strategy as announced in our 2022 Financial Guidance,’ said Georg Hotar, CEO of Photon Energy Group. ‘The power plant in Sahateni marks another important step in our efforts to commission a total capacity of around 32 MWp in Romania by the end of 2022. These new assets alone will expand our IPP portfolio to over 120 MWp by the end of the year.’

Upon the commissioning of the installation, the company will own and operate 95 solar power plants. Of the total 120 MWp generation capacity, a combined 104 MWp will be selling subsidy-free clean electricity directly on the energy market.

The Sahateni power plant will be owned and operated by a special-purpose company fully owned by Photon Energy Group.

The company is currently developing PV projects in Romania with a total capacity of 242.8 MWp, with a total 28.3 MWp under construction, including the installation in Sahateni. 3.6 MWp is now at the ready‑to‑build stage of development.

Including the Romanian projects, the company has a combined capacity of 892 MWp under development in its key CEE markets and Australia. The remaining project development pipeline in Romania is expected to be built and commissioned in 2023 and 2024 and thus the Romanian market will significantly contribute to the company’s goal of expanding its IPP portfolio to at least 600 MWp globally by the end of 2024.