Rezolv Energy CEO
Rezolv Energy is a clean power producer established to build a multi-gigawatt portfolio of wind, solar and energy storage projects in South Eastern Europe. Backed by 500 million euro from investment firm Actis, Rezolv already has well over 2GW of clean energy being prepared for construction. This includes St. George, which will become one of Bulgaria’s largest solar plants, and Dama Solar, which will be the largest solar project anywhere in Europe once it is operational. Rezolv also has more than 1GW of wind power being prepared for construction in Romania. The company’s plan is to grow its pipeline to 4GW within the next three to five years. The power from these projects will be sold to commercial and industrial users through longterm Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs).
What is a PPA?
PPAs are long-term electricity contracts for a fixed or indexed price, meaning that customers have certainty about the price they will pay – for up to twenty years. At a time of wildly fluctuating energy prices, this is a very attractive proposition.
Crucially, these deals can also be made cross-border, so the energy can be produced in one country but the off-taker can be based elsewhere. This makes PPAs an option even for companies that cannot source their renewable energy needs locally.
Are there some business sectors that are particularly attracted to PPAs?
As you would expect, energyintensive businesses have been among the first movers. We are in discussions, for example, with automotive companies, breweries and telecoms firms – but businesses from other sectors as well.
So far, the greatest interest is from multinational companies because so many of them have net-zero targets. In 2015, the year the Paris Agreement was adopted, only six of the world’s largest publicly-traded companies had committed to net-zero targets. Today, more than 700 have done so.
PPAs are still quite a new concept in SEE. How confident are you that we will see a significant volume of deals being signed in the near future?
Romania signed its first PPA contract in 2021, Bulgaria only last year, so it’s true that it is a relatively new concept in this region. But things are moving very quickly and I believe that we are on the cusp of a major era of PPA deals in SEE. I say that because three vital elements are coming into alignment for the first time. First, the regulatory environment for PPAs is improving, led by an ever more ambitious EU policy agenda. Second, renewable energy capacity is coming onstream in volume. I am proud that Rezolv is in the vanguard of that green energy revolution.
And third, we are seeing strong, widespread corporate demand for clean power – with demand growing all the time.
What would you say to companies in SEE that are interested in procuring green power?
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