Vestas sells 656MW wind portfolio in Italy to Plenitude's PLT Energia unit

Vestas has sold a 656MW wind portfolio to Italian renewable energy producer PLT Energia, one of the Danish wind turbine manufacturer's oldest customers.

The development arm of Vestas holds around 30GW of wind capacity in its pipeline, with about 6.5GW of this capacity so far moving up to become firm projects.

In its statement announcing the sale, Vestas described the transaction as a demonstration of the company’s "commitment to increase the volume of viable wind projects in the industry and attract more investment into renewable energy in strategic markets like Italy".

Vestas, headed by Henrik Andersen, includes development of new renewable energy assets among its operations, as part of what it says is a contribution to the acceleration of the clean energy transition, including green job creation and economic development for local communities.

Inigo Sabater, senior vice president for development with Vestas commented: “It is a pleasure to do business with a solvent and capable partner as PLT Energia that will continue investing in developing these projects, which are designed for Vestas technology.

"Vestas Development will continue with its effort to originate a high-quality pipeline in Italy...This is a major milestone in our project development efforts, and it underlines how we can leverage our development portfolio to strengthen the collaboration with Vestas’ customers”.

PLT Energia CEO, Stefano Marulli added: "With this strategic transaction, PLT Energia continues its growth plans in Italy, Europe and the United States with an under construction and advanced development pipeline of more than 3GW.”

PLT Energia was acquired one year ago by Plenitude, the renewables arm of Italian oil and gas giant Eni, with more than 13GW of renewable energy projects.

At the time, Eni said the deal was "synergistic" due to the unit's portfolio of renewable assets and retail customers. PLT's business is concentrated in Italy and Spain, with 1.2GW of projects under development, of which 80% of which are wind power and, according to Eni, 60% are in an advanced maturity stage.