Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), a Canadian pension fund company, is acquiring 73 solar power plants in Spain with a total capacity of 216MW from Q-Energy, an investment and renewable energy management company.

The financial terms of the deal were not revealed.

The acquisition from Q-Energy’s Q-Energy III Fund marks CDPQ’s first infrastructure equity investment in Spain.

Iñigo Olaguibel – Founding Partner of Q-Energy said: “This operation is in line with our wider strategy of continuous financial and operational optimization of renewable energy assets.

“Having CDPQ as the new owner of this portfolio is a clear example of their commitment to the renewable sector and to Spain, and is a great moment of pride for the Q-Energy team, which will continue to take care of the projects’ long-term management.

“At Q-Energy, we consider the sector as fundamental to ensuring a sustainable future for our society. We will continue to invest in the sector in the coming years through our new Q-Energy IV Fund, where we hope to invest another EUR 4 billion across different European geographies.”

CDPQ said that the investment is the first step towards creating a new platform in the country, which will look to acquire more renewable assets.

Emmanuel Jaclot – Executive Vice President and Head of Infrastructure at CDPQ said: “This first equity infrastructure investment in Spain is a milestone in the deployment of CDPQ’s long-term European infrastructure strategy.

“With this transaction, we are laying the foundation of our renewables platform in Spain, which will allow us to progressively increase our presence in this key renewable market and achieve CDPQ’s carbon intensity reduction targets.”

The acquired photovoltaic plants located throughout the Latin American country can generate more than 355,000MWh of power annually, which can meet the electricity needs of more than 115,000 households.

The transaction is expected to close over the coming months. The advisors for Q-Energy on the deal are Royal Bank of Canada & Cuatrecasas, while BNP Paribas and Watson Farley & Williams were the advisors for CDPQ.

Post-acquisition, Q-Energy will continue to take care of the long-term management of the Spanish solar power plants, undertake day-to-day operations, monitoring, and maintenance.

Currently, the Q-Energy is said to manage 150 plus renewable energy facilities across Spain, Italy, and Germany, which generate more than 1.3GW of power.

  CDPQ, Emmanuel Jaclot, Iñigo Olaguibel, Q-Energy, Solar industry news, Spain