The German management company DWS became the sole shareholder of the Portuguese Cleanwatts, a pioneering company in energy communities, and committed to investing around 150 million euros by 2030.
The operation aims to take advantage of the regulatory framework and solar potential highlighted in the National Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC) to accelerate decentralized generation and collective self-consumption projects.
The entry of DWS, which has a portfolio of energy infrastructures in other European countries, aims to guarantee renewable energy at competitive prices at points of consumption and support the growth in demand associated with the electrification and digitalization of the economy.
The investment also foresees the use of batteries to reduce costs and a significant reduction in emissions associated with mass consumption products.
Pedro Antão Alves, CEO of Cleanwatts, highlights that “DWS and Cleanwatts are aligned in simplifying the energy transition for companies, through the installation of photovoltaic plants without investment for customers, so that they can consume energy at a competitive and predictable cost in the long term”. He also adds that “priority will be given to strengthening technical competence, supported by a strong engineering department with the capacity to size and monitor high-performance plants”.
DWS sees Portugal as a market with advanced regulation for individual and collective self-consumption, which is the basis for the investment. Miguel Horta e Costa, partner from DWS, states that “Portugal is a sophisticated country in terms of energy regulation. This investment allows the implementation of innovative decarbonization projects on a local scale and, in the future, we could see Cleanwatts’ Energy Communities management platform being used in other European countries”, he concludes.
The transaction also implements the partial exit of the Verdane fund, which was the majority shareholder of Cleanwatts.
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