EDF Renewables UK has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Transport for London (TfL) to power London’s Tube.
The PPA will help fund the construction of the 400MW Longfield Solar Farm, for which EDF Renewables secured a development consent order (DCO) in June 2023.
Approximately 20% of the site’s output will be supplied to TfL at a fixed price, protecting the transport operator, London’s largest single electricity consumer, from market volatility.
TfL has a wider ambition of using 100% renewable source electricity across its operations by 2030. It opened a tender for purpose-built solar power plants to power its network in November this year, seeking up to 64MW or about 5% of its electricity supply.
Energy minister Michael Shanks said the PPA is “very welcome news”.
EDF Renewables has also just signed a corporate PPA (cPPA) with UK state-owned transport operator Network Rail. It will see the rail operator offtake 64GWh of solar energy at a fixed cost over the 14 years the cPPA covers.
PPAs are a well-recognised funding solution that offer developers a fixed income and revenue certainty for a solar plant. During May, the UK and Ireland were the two countries to sign the highest number of renewable energy PPAs across Europe.
According to figures from Swiss consultancy Pexapark, four PPAs were signed in the UK, covering a total volume of 113MW, followed by Ireland with two (49.3MW). The deal signed between EDF and Network Rail was the largest in May.
The UK’s energy minister Michael Shanks will deliver the keynote address at Solar Media’s Clean Power 2030 Summits, combining the UK Solar Summit, the Wind Power Finance & Investment Summit and the Green Hydrogen Summit.
On day two of the UK Solar Summit, a panel discussion including representatives from TfL and the Energy Transmission Commission, ‘Evolving Offtake Structures: Private Wire, PPAs & New Procurement Models for Large Energy Buyers Amid Fluctuating Power Prices’, will cover emerging offtake structures and the future of procurement.
The summits will be held in London on 1-2 July. View the agenda and book tickets here—use our discount code SPP20 for a discount!
