EDP secures largest distributed solar energy partnership with projects up to 100MWp
Faurecia, company of the Group FORVIA, has chosen EDP to develop self-consumption solar installations on over 60 sites of the automotive components multinational in Europe, Asia and the United States. This partnership represents a decisive step in EDP group’s goal to reach 2GW in distributed solar by 2025.
EDP has just signed a global partnership to install up to 100MWp of solar energy at Faurecia’s sites in Europe, Asia and the North America. By the end of 2023, more than 60 self-consumption solar parks will be installed at the multinational’s industrial units in Portugal, Spain, Italy, the United States, China, South Korea, Japan, and Thailand. This is the largest distributed solar energy project secured to this date by EDP group and the first to be installed with the same partner in several continents simultaneously.
Faurecia, a major player in the global automotive industry, will now consume renewable energy produced on its own sites, significantly reducing its dependence on the energy grid. This partnership is also an important step in Faurecia’s objectives to progressively reduce the carbon emissions of its industrial operations (scope 1 and 2).
The partnership is based on an As-a-Service model, with EDP investing, operating and maintaining panels under long-term contracts adjusted to the local specificities of each Faurecia market. It is expected that these more than 60 projects may have up to 200,000 solar panels, and that they will allow the company to avoid more than 60,000 tons of CO2 over the next decade.
In Europe, EDP has been reaching record values for distributed solar contracted capacity and has already installed around 300MWp on companies’ sites and families houses through EDP Comercial. EDP has been growing in this segment in several European markets, through organic growth and acquisitions, as happened recently in Poland, through Soon Energy, or in Italy, with the purchase of Enertel. In the United States and Asia Pacific, EDP recently entered the distributed solar market through EDP Renewables, with the acquisitions of the North American company C2 Omega and the Asian company Sunseap, respectively. This partnership is an important step in the consolidation of this segment in these markets.
“This partnership shows EDP’s ability to respond to multinational customers who wish to choose distributed solar solutions across countries and to support the energy transition at a global scale. By installing up to 100 MWp of distributed solar contracted capacity, EDP is one step closer to reaching a 10x growth by 2025 “, says Miguel Stilwelld’Andrade, CEO of EDP group.
“Producing renewable energy on our sites is a central commitment to meet our 2025 objective to become CO2 neutral for our in-house emissions. Leveraging strategic collaboration with global and leading partners allows us to speed up and improve our energy resilience in a more sustainable way. Also, it reflects our corporate responsibility to have a positive impact on society and meet the needs of future generations,” said Patrick Koller, Faurecia CEO.
Distributed solar energy is one of EDP’s strategic areas for this decade, with the aim of installing more than 2GW in homes and businesses by 2025, thus contributing to increase the renewable energy production and allowing more people to cleaner energy sources. In 2021, EDP registered an expressive growth in the number of clients with solar solutions.
About EDP Group
EDP is a multinational, vertically integrated utility company. EDP is the fourth largest wind energy production company in the world and 75% of its energy is produced from renewable resources. EDP is expanding its renewable footprint with the installation and maintenance of distributed solar energy projects in clients’ assets.
About FORVIA Faurecia
Founded in 1997, Faurecia has grown to become a major player in the global automotive industry. With 266 industrial sites, 39 R&D centers and 114,000 employees in 35 countries, Faurecia is a global leader in its four areas of business: seating, interiors, Clarion Electronics and clean mobility. The Group’s strong technological offering provides carmakers with solutions for the cockpit of the future and sustainable mobility. In 2020, the Group reported total turnover of €14.7 billion. Faurecia is listed on the Euronext Paris market and is a component of the CAC Next 20 index.
