Central America will remain a key focus for MPC Energy Solutions, according to CFO Stefan Meichsner.
The executive made the comment during the Amsterdam-based company’s second quarter results presentation, where he highlighted opportunities in the region.
“Guatemala is a market where we can certainly develop more than 100MW over the next two years and 65MW are already underway. Panama has always been a promising market and we now see projects with longer term PPAs,” he said.
This year, MPC began operations of the Santa Rosa and Villa Sol solar plants in El Salvador for a combined 21.3MW, signed a PPA in Guatemala for a planned 65MWp solar park and inked a service agreement in Panama.
Construction of the Guatemala plant is due to begin by 1Q24 and plans for a second project are underway, said Meichsner, adding that at least 50MW are planned in Panama and 60MW in El Salvador.
“The [El Salvador] project was taken from greenfield development all the way through operations by MPC Energy Solutions, making it the first project that fully underlines our business model and our ambition to become a full cycle IPP [independent power producer] that covers greenfield development, construction and long-term operation of renewable assets throughout Latin America and the Caribbean,” the CFO said.
“This is equally true for another solar PV plant called Los Girasoles [12.3MW] in Colombia, also a project we took from greenfield development all the way through construction and that was connected to the power grid in Colombia in late Q2 of this year.”
The executive said that there is potential to expand in Mexico, where MPC operates the 15.8MW Los Santos Solar I park but that in Colombia there are no further plans at this time, with commercial operation of the 27MW Planeta Rica solar plant in the country scheduled to start in September.
And MPC plans to participate in Jamaica’s renewable energy call with the 86MW Acacia solar project while development of the Solec project (35.7MWp solar, 18.2MW battery storage) on St Kitts is delayed due to permitting.
Source: bnamericas