Limes Renewable Energy, a Milan-based developer of renewable energy projects, is currently developing 36 photovoltaic, agrivoltaic, and BESS projects with a total capacity of 725 MW in Italy.
The plants are mainly located in the north, in Lombardy, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna, and Veneto, while in the south they are located in Puglia and the islands.
"The photovoltaic project portfolio consists of initiatives subject to single authorisation as well as PAS, and in the last six months we have obtained four VIAs from Mase. Most of the projects are already in the authorization phase, and we are expecting to receive quotes shortly for the connection of some projects in the north, an area where we are focusing our efforts, aware that the many initiatives in the south will consolidate the phenomenon of cannibalization, making it more risky to operate a future plant in those areas," explained Cristiano Spillati, managing director of Limes Renewable Energy, in an interview with pv magazine Italia.
The generation target is approximately 200 MW of new projects on a quarterly basis, “for which we are continuing to evaluate greenfield initiatives, as well as the acquisition of connection estimates and preliminary contracts already signed,” added Spillati.
Types of projects
Limes is pursuing photovoltaic projects, currently mainly located in areas suitable under Article 20, paragraph 8, c-ter of Law 199/2021, and agrivoltaic projects, both basic, mainly in Puglia and Sicily and already underway, and advanced.
“In this regard, we have been collaborating for years with a spin-off of the University of Tuscia, which takes care of the detailed design of the agricultural part of the agri-voltaic system, exploring important issues such as eligible crops, crop rotations, usable machinery, etc.,” said the managing director. In the implementation of agrivoltaic projects, Limes operates “both by guaranteeing landowners that they can continue to cultivate their land and by taking over the management of the crops in order to ensure that the necessary requirements for operating the agri-PV system are met.”
Suitable Areas Platform
Limes believes that the current implementation of the suitable areas platform “provides information that can lead to misinterpretation regarding the suitability or otherwise of an area.”
“Our team has verified that for many of the projects in suitable areas that we have evaluated, the platform does not currently provide accurate information. We hope that it can be quickly implemented and become a useful tool for operators in the sector,” reported the managing director.
This view is in line with that described by other operators in the sector.
Fer X and “depressed prices”
Spillati suggested that with very depressed Fer X prices, the Italian market could follow the path of Spain, where “the price of authorizations has halved,” but with some differences.
“The issue in Spain is more structural because it depends on several factors, including the fact that the country has many limitations in terms of export capacity, is almost an island in terms of the electricity market, and is culpably far behind in the deployment of storage, which would have helped to achieve higher capture prices,” argued the managing director.
In Italy, “I see it as more ‘cyclical’, partly because it is the government itself that, by limiting ‘cheap’ photovoltaics and focusing on ‘expensive’ agri-PV, is still managing to generate price expectations that are not so low,” he said.
Corporate strategy
At the end of April, Limes sold nine photovoltaic plants with a total capacity of approximately 150 MW.
The company considers the “pure developer” phase closed and is focusing its efforts on building, together with a number of partners, the projects in its portfolio with potential access to Fer-X. In addition, it intends to “structure itself more to go to market in search of a financial partner to support this evolution of the business model, not only in Italy but potentially also in some of the other markets where Limes is present,” explained the head of Limes.
Italy is the first country where it intends to build without the total sale of the vehicle companies' share capital, “but depending on the financial partner we can secure, we would like to gradually evolve the business model in all or almost all jurisdictions where Limes is or will be present.”
“We are currently in Sweden, the US, Colombia, Chile, Vietnam, and Indonesia, a mix of emerging and mature markets, but we are monitoring other markets for potential entry in the coming months,” concluded Spillati.