PARIS (Reuters) - France's Total (PA:TOTF) said on Tuesday it had signed two agreements to add 2 gigawatts (GW) of solar power capacity to its portfolio as it enters the Spanish renewables market.
Total Solar International signed the deals with Spain's Powertis and Solarbay Renewable Energy. Total did not give a value for the deals, but said it would pay fees to the firms at agreed steps during the development of the projects.
Total has been expanding into renewable energy, setting a target to achieve generation capacity of 25 GW by 2025. The agreements with the Spanish firms follow two solar deals in Qatar and India.
Under the agreement with Powertis, which develops solar power projects in Europe and South America, the companies will establish a joint venture to develop solar projects in Spain.
It said Powertis would bring 800 MW of early stage projects and the venture would develop further new projects.
In the agreement, Total Solar will acquire 100% of solar projects being developed by Solarbay in the Andalusia, Aragon and Castile-La Mancha regions of Spain, representing total capacity of up to 1.2 GW.
"Spain benefits from a solar resource that is unparalleled in Europe. Its photovoltaic market is one of the most dynamic in Europe, with an expected capacity increase from 6 GW to nearly 40 GW by 2030," Julien Pouget, Total's senior vice president for renewables, said in a statement.
Total said the first of these projects would start operations by the end of 2020.