Lightsource bp signs 210-MWp solar PPA with Brazil's Casa dos Ventos

Lightsource bp, the BP Plc (LON:BP) backed solar power business, on Friday said it has agreed to sell the output of its debut 210-MWp solar project in Brazil to local renewables developer Casa dos Ventos under a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) that is the first signed by the Brazilian company as a buyer.

The contract will add to Casa dos Ventos’ growing trading activities and help to create hybrid generation in combination with wind farms.

“Our energy trading in the free market has grown rapidly, so we decided to complement our portfolio for a decade with photovoltaic energy from Lightsource bp,” said Casa dos Ventos commercial director Itamar Lessa. The company trades 1.3 GWh per month and has now signed BRL 7.2 billion (USD 1.5bn/EUR 14.bn) of contracts until 2025, according to Lessa.

Lightsource bp’s project, called Milagres and located in Abaiara, in the northeastern state of Ceara, is already under construction. It is expected to be fully online in early 2024.

Casa dos Ventos is set to complete 900 MW of wind farms in the first half of 2023 and will bring another 200 MW of wind farms online in 2024. All of them have long-term contracts with large consumers, including in self-production mode.

At the same time, on top of the Lightsource bp PPA, the Brazilian developer is looking to add 800 MW of solar capacity in the coming years, half of which to wind farms in the Northeast. The other half will be solar plants in the Southeast/Center-West submarket.

“It is a way to make our wind portfolio a hybrid and customise the best energy for our partners,” explained Lessa.

Lightsource bp says it has a large portfolio of 4 GWp of projects under development in Brazil to answer the growing demand for solar offtake via corporate PPAs and self-production structures.

(BRL 1 = USD 0.210/EUR 0.196)

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