Spain's FCC buys solar plants for €140M

Madrid-based builder Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (MCE:FCC.MC) has made its second foray into energy with a €140 million ($203 million USD) solar-farm purchase.

FCC said it bought the two photovoltaic power plants in Espejo, Spain, near Cordoba, from Sky Global Solar, a solar module distributor with headquarters in Hong Kong and Spain.

FCC said it expects to connect the plants to the grid in the next few weeks, making them eligible for the country's €0.44 per-kilowatt-hour feed-in tariff that expires at the end of the month. The Cortijo Viejo and Sierresita plants have an installed capacity of 20 megawatts and peak production of 21.4 MW.

Spain accounts for 11 percent of installed solar capacity in the European Union with 516 MW, according to the most recent report by Barometers EurObserv'ER, a research project supported by the European Commission. 

In January, FCC signed a €120 million deal to build the two plants for Sky Global Solar. In May, FCC said it would move into the energy sector to diversify its business amid a building market slump in Spain.

In August, FCC announced its first energy deal, a $1.2 billion USD purchase of Babcock & Brown Wind Partners' (ASX:BBW) 420 MW of wind energy assets in Spain (see Spain's FCC inks $1.2 billion wind investment).

Together, those acquisitions and future renewable energy deals are being grouped into a new business unit called FCC Energia, the company said.

Sky Global said it owns two other solar power plants in the region. In addition to distributing modules made by the Shanghai Electric Group, Sky Global develops and manages solar photovoltaic and thermal installations.

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