Supermercati Tosano, a supermarket chain in northeast Italy, has signed a ten-year deal to buy solar power from Iberdrola. The contract is described in volume, not capacity: about 20 GWh a year. It names no plant, no megawatts and no price. What it does name is a reason, and the reason is not the climate.
Key takeaways
- Iberdrola signed a 10-year power purchase agreement with Supermercati Tosano, announced on 12 February 2024, to supply solar electricity to the supermarket chain in northeast Italy.
- Under the Iberdrola PPA, Supermercati Tosano is estimated to consume about 20 GWh of electricity a year, supplied from Iberdrola's photovoltaic plants in Italy.
- The Iberdrola and Tosano agreement is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by about 6,000 tonnes a year.
- Iberdrola planned to have 400 MW of operational capacity in Italy by 2025.
- Enerdatics records 44 solar PPAs in Italy announced in 2023 and 2024; none discloses a tariff, and 22 of the 34 that disclose a duration run for ten years.
Why would a supermarket call a solar contract 'energy security'?
Because for a retailer the main value of a power purchase agreement is a known cost, not a green label. A power purchase agreement, or PPA, is a long-term contract under which a buyer agrees to take electricity from a generator at terms set in advance. The record says the partnership will contribute to Tosano's energy security and independence.
Supermarkets run refrigeration, lighting and climate control around the clock. Electricity is a large, unavoidable operating cost that cannot be passed on to shoppers overnight. Buying it on the wholesale market leaves that cost exposed to every swing in Italian power prices. Contracting supply for ten years is a way to make that line in the accounts more predictable.
Italian wholesale price risk is not abstract. Heavy midday solar output and periods of very low prices have shaped how sellers of Italian power think about exposure, as W.E.B's sale of its Ariano wind farm to Enel showed on the generation side. A buyer such as Tosano is managing the mirror image of that risk.
What does 20 GWh a year actually describe?
An expected consumption figure rather than a plant. The record describes the volume as an estimated annual amount Tosano will consume, supplied from Iberdrola's photovoltaic plants. It does not tie the contract to a named project or a stated capacity.
That matters for how the deal should be read. A contract written around a named plant usually tells the buyer which megawatts its money supports. A contract written around a volume supplied from a portfolio gives the seller flexibility over which plants deliver it. For a supermarket chain whose interest is a stable bill, the source plant matters less than the quantity and the term.
The environmental figure follows from the volume. About 6,000 tonnes of CO2 avoided a year against about 20 GWh works out at roughly 0.3 tonnes per MWh. That is the record's estimate, and it depends on what the solar power is assumed to displace.
How does Tosano's contract fit Iberdrola's Italian plan?
As the first in a run of corporate contracts. Iberdrola planned to have 400 MW operating in Italy by 2025. Building that capacity is easier to finance when part of the output is already sold to creditworthy buyers on long contracts.
Enerdatics' data shows that Iberdrola appears as supplier on six Italian solar PPAs announced in 2024, and that Tosano's, on 12 February, is the earliest of them. The others followed with the Fenix solar project, Bayer at the Montefiascone plant, BTicino, Prima Sole Components for 23 MW and Acciaierie Venete for 12 MW. Across all 44 Italian solar PPAs Enerdatics records for 2023 and 2024, ten disclose no capacity, and Tosano's is one of them. Only four have a retail or consumer goods buyer: Tosano, Carrefour with Qair for 52 MW, Cargill with Galileo for 79 MW, and Procter & Gamble with EDP for 109 MW. None of the 44 records carries a tariff.
That last point is the striking one. Italy's corporate PPA market is active, and duration is commonly published, yet the number that matters most to both sides stays private. Ten years is the market's default term: 22 of the 34 contracts that state a duration run for exactly ten years, as Tosano's does. A small number stretch to 15 or 20 years, and a handful are short hedges of one or two years signed between generators and utilities.
What does the deal signal for Italian corporate PPAs?
It signals that mid-sized domestic companies, not only multinationals, are now buying long-term solar in Italy. The best-known Italian corporate PPAs tend to involve global names such as Equinix, Salesforce or Procter & Gamble. A regional supermarket chain signing for ten years shows the buyer base widening.
It also shows how utilities are selling into that demand. Iberdrola has packaged supply from its plant portfolio into contracts sized to the customer's consumption rather than to a single project. The same month it signed the Tosano deal, Statkraft signed a ten-year contract with iliad for a solar plant in Latina, another sign that ten years has become the standard Italian unit of sale.
For buyers, the trade-off is clear. A ten-year contract can give up some of the benefit if wholesale prices fall. In return it reduces exposure to price spikes that a business with thin retail margins struggles to absorb. The record does not disclose how the Tosano contract is priced. For Tosano, that is what the record means by energy security.
Frequently asked questions
Who supplies power to Supermercati Tosano under the PPA?Iberdrola, from its photovoltaic plants in Italy, under a 10-year power purchase agreement announced on 12 February 2024.
How much electricity does the Tosano PPA cover?Tosano is estimated to consume about 20 GWh of electricity a year under the agreement, which is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by about 6,000 tonnes a year.
How long are Italian solar PPAs usually?Ten years is the most common term. Of 34 Italian solar PPAs announced in 2023 and 2024 that disclose a duration, 22 run for ten years, according to Enerdatics.
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