Germany's Covestro to offtake solar power from 187-MW park near Berlin

German plastic materials maker Covestro AG (ETR:1COV) has agreed to procure a third of the electricity generated by the 187-MW Weesow-Willmersdorf solar park near Berlin to power two of its sites in Germany.

Covestro has contracted 63 MW of the solar park's capacity under a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) signed with German electric utility EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (ETR:EBK). From the start of 2022, the green electricity will be delivered to the sites in Dormagen and Krefeld-Uerdingen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia where it will be used for the production of plastics from alternative raw materials such as mass-balanced polycarbonates and mass-balanced thermoplastic polyurethanes, EnBW said on Monday.

Subscribe for Renewables Now's Corporate PPA Newsletter here for free!

“This enables us to further enhance the sustainability of our production processes and to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint while maintaining the same quality,” said Covestro's CTO Klaus Schaefer.

The Weesow-Willmersdorf solar park consisting of 465,000 solar panels has been in operation since March. The plant was developed without state subsidies and the deal with Covestro is the first PPA for the project.

The agreement with Covestro follows the signing of a long-term PPA between EnBW and Fraport AG (ETR:FRA) earlier this month. The operator of the Frankfurt airport will source 85 MW of green electricity from the 900-MW He Dreiht wind project in the North Sea. Next year, the utility will seek to sign more such deals for the Weesow-Willmersdorf solar farm and for the Gottesgabe and Alttrebbin subsidy-free photovoltaic parks which will be switched on in the spring of 2022.