Enfinity Global has signed a ten-year power purchase agreement with A2A for the output of six solar plants in Lazio and Emilia Romagna. It is the second time in nine months that A2A has bought Enfinity solar. The buyer is not a factory or a data centre. It is a utility, and it is buying power from plants that may not yet be running.
Key takeaways
- Enfinity Global signed a 10-year power purchase agreement with A2A, announced on 24 July 2024, covering 134 MW from six solar plants in the Lazio and Emilia Romagna regions of Italy.
- The A2A agreement follows an earlier Enfinity Global PPA with A2A, announced in October 2023, for three Italian solar projects totalling 97 MW, taking A2A's contracted Enfinity capacity to 231 MW.
- Enerdatics understands that the six Enfinity Global plants supplying A2A were not yet operational when the agreement was announced, based on Enfinity's assets in those regions and its previous PPAs.
- At 134 MW, the Enfinity and A2A agreement is the largest Italian solar PPA by contracted capacity among the 28 that Enerdatics records for 2024.
- None of the 28 Italian solar PPAs Enerdatics records for 2024 discloses a tariff, and 13 of the 21 with a disclosed duration run for exactly ten years.
Why would a utility buy solar power from someone else?
Because buying it is often quicker than building it. A utility with retail customers and industrial clients needs a steady volume of renewable electricity to resell or to match against its own supply commitments. Signing a long contract with an independent developer gets that volume onto its books without the utility carrying the planning, construction and financing risk of the plants itself.
A2A sits on both sides of this market. About a week after the Enfinity deal was announced, Enerdatics recorded A2A as the seller in a separate ten-year solar PPA with Acciaieria Arvedi. Enerdatics does not link the two contracts, and nothing in the record says the Enfinity output will flow to Arvedi. What the pair does show is a utility that buys solar on long terms in one transaction and sells solar on long terms in another.
A power purchase agreement, for readers new to the term, is a contract in which a buyer agrees to take electricity from a specific plant or portfolio for a fixed number of years. It gives the generator predictable revenue, which lenders want to see, and gives the buyer a known source of renewable supply.
What does a second contract tell us that the first did not?
It tells us the first one worked well enough to repeat at a larger size. The October 2023 agreement covered three projects. This one covers six and adds 38 percent more capacity than the first. A buyer returning to the same developer within a year, and at a larger size, suggests the first contract has been workable for both sides.
For Enfinity, concentration is the other side of that coin. Enerdatics records six Enfinity solar PPAs in Italy with a disclosed capacity across 2023 and 2024, adding up to about 388 MW. A2A accounts for 231 MW of that, or roughly 59 percent. Statkraft is next, with 134 MW across two contracts signed in 2023. The rest comes from two smaller buyers, Feralpi Group at 15.5 MW and Nova Aeg at 7.8 MW.
A developer that sells most of its Italian output to one counterparty gains a strong relationship and loses some negotiating range. Whether that trade suits Enfinity depends on terms the record does not disclose, including price.
Why does it matter that the plants may not be built yet?
Because a contract signed before construction is a financing tool as much as a sales agreement. Enerdatics understands the six plants were not yet operational when the deal was announced. If that is right, the contract arrived at the point where it does most work: before the plants are funded, when a lender wants evidence that someone will buy the output.
That timing shifts risk in both directions. The buyer takes on delivery risk, since it is relying on plants that still have to be completed on schedule. The developer takes on price risk, since it has fixed its revenue before knowing its final build cost. Italian solar buyers have accepted this pattern before. An earlier Encavis contract with Aliaxis rested on a solar park in Lazio that had not started construction when it was announced.
The ten-year term is also typical. It is long enough to support debt on a solar plant but short enough that neither side is locked into a price for the asset's whole life. Shorter structures do exist in Italy. REDEN's 90 MW contract with Renantis ran for 18 months, and Peridot Solar's agreement with Axpo for 78.5 MW ran for two years. Both are the exception in the 2024 data.
Enerdatics' data shows 28 Italian solar PPAs announced in 2024. Nineteen disclose a contracted capacity, and the A2A agreement is the largest of them at 134 MW, ahead of REDEN and Renantis at 90 MW, Galileo and Cargill at 79 MW and Peridot and Axpo at 78.5 MW. Of the 21 contracts with a disclosed duration, 13 run for exactly ten years. Not one of the 28 discloses a tariff. Seven of the 28 name a utility or independent power producer as the buyer, a group that includes A2A, Axpo, BKW twice, EGO Energy, Nova Aeg and Renantis.
What does the deal signal for the Italian solar PPA market?
It signals that utilities, not only corporate buyers, are setting the scale of the market. The largest contract of the year went to a utility, and three of the four largest went to utility or independent power producer buyers. Corporate buyers such as Cargill, Carrefour and Equinix signed meaningful volumes in 2024, but their contracts sit between 52 MW and 79 MW. A utility buying for resale can absorb larger blocks than a single industrial site can consume.
It also signals how little of the market is visible on price. With no tariff disclosed across 28 contracts, buyers and sellers are negotiating against reference points they cannot see. Structure is where the variation shows up instead. Some Italian contracts set formulas rather than fixed prices, as GreenGo's ten-year agreement with Sasol did with a discount, a floor and a cap.
For developers, the Enfinity and A2A pairing points to a repeatable route. Find a large buyer that already understands the asset, sign before construction, and come back with a bigger portfolio once the first contract is running. The open question is how much pricing power a developer keeps when one buyer accounts for more than half of its contracted capacity in a market.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the parties to the Enfinity Global and A2A PPA? Enfinity Global is the supplier and A2A, the Italian utility, is the buyer. The agreement covers 134 MW from six Enfinity solar plants in Lazio and Emilia Romagna and runs for ten years.
Is this the first contract between Enfinity Global and A2A? No. A2A signed an earlier PPA with Enfinity in October 2023 for three Italian solar projects totalling 97 MW. Together the two agreements cover 231 MW.
What price did A2A agree to pay? The tariff has not been disclosed. None of the 28 Italian solar PPAs that Enerdatics records for 2024 discloses a price.
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