Shell Energy Europe (Shell) has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with HANSAINVEST Real Assets to procure 600MW of solar energy from the Witznitz Energy Park in Germany.

Witznitz will be Germany’s largest solar project and is being developed by MOVE ON Energy on a former opencast coal mine site near Leipzig. It is due to come online by the end of 2023.

In a separate deal, Shell has agreed to sell the power generated to the Microsoft Corporation, allowing the tech giant to achieve its target of meeting 100% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025.

By delivering clean energy to its clients, Shell intends to successfully transition to a zero-emissions energy business by 2050.

Shell Energy Trading European vice-president Tom Summers stated: “We are continuing to strengthen our low-carbon power portfolio.

“Solar power purchase agreements enable us to combine our strengths in power trading and optimisation with our existing customer relationships to deliver more value with fewer emissions.”

In June 2023, Shell acquired 12 Spanish solar power projects to expand its renewable energy portfolio, Reuters reported.

With a total of 1.1GW of capacity, the solar facilities were acquired from the Spanish renewables developer Isemaren for an undisclosed sum.

Shell renewables generation head Thomas Brostrom confirmed the purchase of the solar portfolio via a post on LinkedIn.