Prospex Energy making progress at Helios solar project

Prospex Energy announced on Wednesday that its photovoltaic hybridisation solar project at the El Romeral power plant, known as ‘Project Helios’, was progressing well, ahead of its final investment decision.

The AIM-traded firm said the El Romeral power plant is located in southern Spain, with the solar project expected to increase output from the plant by up to 60%.

According to the company, Prospex had leased 20 hectares of land adjacent to the power plant for a period of 25 years.

It said it had put out a tender for the installation of an array of solar panels with a maximum power output of 5MW peak, and was currently considering bids from five companies based in Spain.

The tender process was expected to be completed in early May.

Prospex said the final investment decision for the project was scheduled for consideration in June, with permitting, procurement, and installation expected to take less than 12 months.

The existing grid connection at the El Romeral power plant has 8.2MW output allocated, but the plant was currently only using 2.7 MW.

Prospex noted that further grid capacity was available to accept increased output, with existing infrastructure.

“The existing connection to the national grid network operated by Red Eléctrica de España at El Romeral is a significant asset,” said chief executive officer Mark Routh.

“Project Helios will allow Tarba to increase its capacity for power export in the near-term, alongside the capacity increase expected from drilling new gas wells on the existing El Romeral production concessions.

“A revision to the application to drill new wells on the concessions was submitted in March, and is now proceeding through the environmental impact assessment process as required by the regulatory authorities.”

Routh said the investment in photovoltaic solar technology at Helios was due to increase output at the plant by 60%.

“This, alongside Tarba's natural gas power plant, marks an important step not only in the security of energy supply, but also in the ecological transition process.

“It is now widely acknowledged that natural gas has a crucial role to play in both of these very current issues.”

At 1154 BST, shares in Prospex Energy were down 3.51% at 8.93p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.