Masdar to develop solar project in Greece with Finnish energy company

Greece plans to change its energy mix to include 35% renewables by 2030

Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company Masdar has invested with Finland's Taaleri Energia in Serbia and Jordan. Chris Whiteoak / The National

Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar is to develop a 65-megawatt solar photovoltaic project in Greece with Finnish developer Taaleri Energia.

The investment, Masdar's first in the country, will be managed through the Masdar-Taaleri Generation joint venture. It will partner with local entities Autohellas and the Constantakopoulos family.

"We are pleased to support the country’s climate change efforts and contribute to their goal of producing 35 per cent of their energy mix from renewables by 2030," Sulaiman AlMazroui, the UAE's ambassador to Greece, who attended an online signing ceremony, said.

The Greek government has ramped up efforts to include more renewables in its power mix and gave the green light for over 2.8 gigawatts of wind and solar power projects in December. These require an investment of more than $2.5bn.

The Masdar-Taaleri Generation project is being developed 65 kilometres north of the Greek capital, Athens, in the region of Viotia.

The solar photovoltaic power project is "in the advanced development stage" with construction expected to be completed in 2023, Masdar said.

It will generate more than 100 gigawatt-hours of electricity on an annual basis and will be part of Greece's feed-in-tariff premium auction scheme set to take place later this year.

Masdar and Taaleri Energia are co-investors in the 158MW Čibuk 1 wind farm in Serbia, which began operations in 2019. The partners also acquired an equal share in two ready-to-build wind farms in Poland in January, which have a total capacity of 51.4MW.

The Abu Dhabi and Finnish firms are also invested in Jordan's largest single-site solar PV project, the 200MW Baynouna scheme, in the capital, Amman.