E.ON Agrees To Acquire French Photovoltaic Company

With this acquisition E.ON continues the rapid development of its solar activities in one of Europe's most important markets for solar energy

Recently E.ON opened the company’s first solar farm near the southern French town of Le Lauzet. The farm occupies an area of more than 20 hectares, has an installed capacity of 1 megawatt (MW), and could be expanded to 5 MW subject to the availability of a similarly sized grid connection.

Germany utility E.ON AG (EOAN.XE) said Tuesday it agreed to acquire French photovoltaic company Société Conilhac Energies S.A.S.

Conilhac already worked successfully as developer of photovoltaic projects in southern France and assembled a significant pipeline of photovoltaic projects at various stages of maturity. The acquisition will enhance E.ON’s capabilities to develop and implement photovoltaic projects in an industrialized fashion. Between 2003 and 2008 the global photovoltaic market grew from an annual installation rate of 600 MW to around 5,600 MW, a compounded annual growth rate of no less than 55 per cent. Today photovoltaic is still one of the most expensive renewable technologies, but based on the current rate of technology development and price reduction, wind parity is expected to be achieved in many countries between 2015 and 2020.