Aventron : strengthens its position in hydropower in Europe

aventron confirms its growth ambitions in the field of hydropower generation while selling its minority stake in the French family company UNITe

Hydroelectric power is one of aventron's three renewable resources for power generation in Europe and the origin of the company. The company is consistently pursuing its development initiative to further expand hydropower as part of its diversification strategy. At the end of 2017, the portfolio of hydroelectric power plants spread over Norway, France, Switzerland and Italy had a combined capacity of 74 MW for 32 plants. At the end of 2018, the cumulative capacity had already reached 105 MW for 39 plants, including plants under construction or in an advanced development phase. Thus, a new 1.4 MW power plant was commissioned at the end of 2018 in Italy on the Parma River. In Norway, many construction projects are underway, including the 9.3 MW Kjerringnes project, the group's largest hydropower plant to date. In Switzerland, agreements have been signed for aventron's participation in the construction of the future Palanggenbach power plant (2.8 MW) in the canton of Uri. By the end of 2020, the aventron Group is expected to expand its hydropower portfolio in these countries to around 120 MW, thereby achieving a better balanced representation of each of the renewable resources water, wind and sun in the portfolio.

In France, the aventron group sold its minority stake in UNITe, a French family-owned company, specialized in renewable energies, to focus on the management of majority owned generation assets. To this end, an operating team expert in hydropower generation has been set up in France to manage the operation of the fleet and to support the development and acquisition of new plants. The objective is to optimize the performance of the portfolio while strengthening internal skills.