KGHM Polska Miedź, the world’s largest producer of silver and the eighth-largest copper producer, has acquired large-scale photovoltaic farms with a capacity of 47 MW. This is the group’s transaction debut in the renewable energy sources (RES) M&A market.

The purchase of the farms cost PLN 210 million. The copper giant wants to continue acquiring and building photovoltaic and wind farms on its own. In total, the RES generation portfolio could have up to 500 MW of installed capacity.

The installations purchased from Projekt Solartechnik (PST) provide around 2% of KGHM Polska Miedź’s demand. In accordance with the strategy update adopted in January 2022, KGHM planned that by 2030, 50 % of the electricity it consumes will come from its own sources, including RES. The total planned installed capacity of the projects in the pipeline is more than 200 MW together with potential acquisitions, making it 450 MW.

The management informed investors that it is planning to purchase further projects in addition to the 47 MW portfolio of farms purchased from PST. KGHM was to make preliminary, non-binding offers to selected developers to purchase shares of companies developing renewable energy projects (photovoltaic and wind farms): both those in the ready-to-build phase and those that have been built by the seller and are ready for commercial operation. The copper company was then expected to have around 250 MW in advanced acquisition (M&A) processes.

In parallel to the acquisitions, KGHM wanted to pursue the construction of RES on its own and third-party land – the value of the portfolio in development is around 200 MW. For the time being, these are mainly large-scale PV projects on its own land (the possibility of onshore wind projects has been explored).

In June 2023, an application was submitted to the local distribution network operator, Tauron Dystrybucja, for technical connection conditions for an 88 MW RES project on own land. Work has begun on a photovoltaic farm project on the site of the decommissioned shafts of the Lubin mine.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński