German energy giant E.ON Group has signed a share sale and purchase agreement to acquire Societe Conilhac Energies S.A.S., a developer of photovoltaic projects (PV) in France, to further expand E.ON’s solar business in Europe.

Conilhac is already a successful solar PV project developer in southern France, with a pipeline of PV projects at various stages of development. Conilhac’s expertise will add to E.ON’s capabilities to develop and implement PV projects as part of its power generation portfolio. E.ON has recently opened a one-megawatt (MW) solar farm near Le Lauzet in southern France, which could be expanded to five megawatts, provided that a similarly-sized grid connection is available.

E.ON wishes to invest in solar energy because solar energy is anticipated to follow a growth path over the next ten years similar to the one that wind energy experienced in the last decade. The global PV market had already experienced a compounded annual growth of no less than 55% between the years 2003 and 2008 as the annual installation rate of 600 MW increased to around 5,600 MW.

The company will be investing €8 billion for the expansion of its renewable energy sources, targeting to have approximately 10 gigawatts (GW) of generation capacity by 2015. E.ON also aims to produce 35% of its power from renewable sources, with 25% coming from wind, solar, biomass, and biomethane, and the remaining 10% from hydropower. Carbon-free sources will supply half of the company’s electricity, while efficient coal and gas-fired power plants will account for the other half.

E.ON AG is one of the world’s largest investor-owned power and gas companies, with €87 billion in sales. The company also operates an electric and gas utility business and renewable source-generating assets in North America.


- Natassia Y. Laforteza

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¹ http://www.eon.com/en/presse/news-detail.jsp;jsessionid=...