PPC Renewables plans to announce a tender by next week, at the very latest, for the development of one of Europe’s biggest solar energy farms, a 550-MW facility in northern Greece’s Ptolemaida area, where sections of lignite mines owned by parent company PPC, the power utility, will be used for the renewable energy project.

The tender will concern the project’s construction. PPC Renewables will install the solar panels itself.

The Ptolemaida solar farm will not participate in RES auctions for tariffs as PPC Renewables intends to establish Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with buyers for direct purchases of the solar energy farm’s output.

PPC Renewables aims to have a construction company working on the project’s development by the end of this year for completion of the investment by 2024. The project’s budget is worth approximately 280 million euros.

Europe’s biggest solar energy farm at present, still under construction, is a 626-MW project in central Spain. It is being developed by Solaria Energia. Also in Spain, Iberdrola is developing a 590-MW solar energy farm.

Greece’s biggest solar farm, already operating, is a 204-MW facility owned by Hellenic Petroleum (ELPE) in Kozani, northern Greece.