iliad Group, the French telecoms operator, signed three solar power contracts on the same day in February 2024, one in each of its three markets. Two came from Statkraft and one from ENGIE. Read by megawatts, Poland is the largest. Read by electricity delivered, it is the smallest. The plant that comes out on top is the one with the least capacity.
Key takeaways
- iliad Group signed three solar power purchase agreements announced on 13 February 2024: with Statkraft for a 36 MW plant at Resko in Poland, with Statkraft for a 27.9 MWp plant in Latina, Italy, and with ENGIE for a 25.6 MW plant at Sainte-Gemme in France.
- The Statkraft PPA in Poland supplies iliad's subsidiary Play with 34.2 GWh a year for ten years from 1 January 2025, from a solar farm operated by Better Energy.
- The Statkraft PPA in Italy is for ten years from 1 January 2025 and covers an estimated 48 GWh a year from a new photovoltaic system in the province of Latina operated by Sonnedix.
- The ENGIE PPA in France runs for 15 years from 1 April 2025 and covers more than 34.5 GWh a year, bringing iliad's annual French supply from its two ENGIE contracts to almost 55 GWh.
- Across the three February 2024 contracts, iliad contracted 89.5 MW of solar and about 116.7 GWh a year; the Italian plant holds 31 percent of the capacity but supplies 41 percent of the electricity.
Why does the smallest plant deliver the most power?
Because sunshine, not nameplate, sets output. A solar plant's capacity in megawatts describes its peak rating. How much electricity it actually produces in a year depends on how strong and how frequent the sunlight is where it stands. The same panel in central Italy and in northern Poland will produce very different amounts.
The three contracts show that spread clearly. The Latina plant is expected to produce about 1,720 MWh for every MWp of capacity. Sainte-Gemme in western France produces about 1,348 MWh per MW. Resko in northwest Poland produces about 950 MWh per MW. The Italian plant yields about 80 percent more electricity per unit of capacity than the Polish one.
One caveat applies. The Italian figure is stated in MWp, the peak direct-current rating of the panels, while the Polish and French figures are given in MW. The two measures are not identical, so the comparison is indicative rather than exact. The direction, though, is unmistakable.
Why is the French contract five years longer?
The record does not explain it, but the pattern is consistent across iliad's French purchases. The ENGIE contract at Sainte-Gemme runs for 15 years. So did iliad's first ENGIE contract, for the 16 MW Labrit solar farm, signed in February 2023. Both Statkraft contracts, in Poland and Italy, run for ten.
The pattern held after this round. Leap records three further iliad PPAs in 2025: a 15-year contract with Arkolia Energies for an 18.1 MW solar project in France, a 15-year contract with H2air for the Limodores wind farm in France, and a 10-year contract with Metlen Energy & Metals for about 15.2 MW of solar in Italy. Every French contract iliad has signed in Leap's record runs for 15 years. Every Italian and Polish one runs for ten.
The French plant also carries an additional credential. Sainte-Gemme meets the criteria of the TED label, short for Transition Energetique Durable, a sustainable energy transition standard designed jointly by ENGIE and Bureau Veritas. The farm sits at the Ferme de Magne wildlife park and is managed in collaboration with APAGESMS.
Why does Poland save the most carbon per MWh?
Because of what the solar power replaces. The Polish contract is expected to avoid 20,820 tonnes of CO2 a year from 34.2 GWh. The French contract is expected to avoid 8,000 tonnes from about 34.5 GWh. Almost the same volume of electricity, and the Polish contract avoids roughly 2.6 times as much carbon.
That gap reflects the grids, not the panels. The carbon saving from a PPA is usually calculated against the emissions of the electricity it displaces. A grid with a large share of fossil generation gives each clean MWh more carbon to offset than a grid that is already low-carbon. So the plant that produces the least per megawatt delivers the most carbon reduction per MWh. A buyer optimising for kilowatt hours would favour Italy. A buyer optimising for avoided emissions would favour Poland. iliad bought both.
The record also notes a later extension in Poland. In June 2026, Play's PPA with Statkraft was extended by three years, with an additional 16.4 GWh a year to be supplied from the Korytnica 2 wind farm. Adding wind changes the profile of the Polish supply, since wind tends to produce more in the seasons and hours when solar produces less.
Enerdatics records seven PPAs with iliad Group as offtaker between February 2023 and May 2025, covering solar in France, Italy and Poland and one wind farm in France. Tech and telecom buyers are a steady presence in both of the larger markets here. Of 47 PPAs Enerdatics records in Poland across 2023 and 2024, eight have a tech or telecom offtaker, including Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Orange Polska. Of 44 Italian solar PPAs in the same period, six do, including Equinix and Salesforce.
What does the deal signal for telecoms buyers of renewable power?
It signals that operators with networks spread across several countries are buying locally, market by market, rather than through one large contract. Each of iliad's three contracts pairs a plant with iliad's business in the same country, as the Polish contract does with its subsidiary Play. That keeps the green electricity claim inside the grid where the consumption happens. The pattern resembles Equinix's 20-year contract with wpd for French wind, where a digital infrastructure buyer chose length and certainty over flexibility.
For suppliers, the round shows how a multi-market utility wins a multi-market buyer. Statkraft supplied two of the three countries, extending a pattern of repeat corporate contracts seen in its successive agreements with SCHOTT in Germany. No contract in the iliad round discloses a price.
Frequently asked questions
Which companies supply iliad Group under its February 2024 PPAs?Statkraft supplies iliad from the 36 MW Resko solar farm in Poland and the 27.9 MWp Latina solar plant in Italy. ENGIE supplies iliad from the 25.6 MW Sainte-Gemme solar farm in France.
How much electricity do the three iliad PPAs cover?About 116.7 GWh a year in total: 34.2 GWh in Poland, an estimated 48 GWh in Italy and more than 34.5 GWh in France.
How long are iliad's PPAs?The Polish and Italian contracts with Statkraft run for ten years from 1 January 2025. The French contract with ENGIE runs for 15 years from 1 April 2025.
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