Equity investment in Voltalia, a French company specialized in renewable energies

Voltalia is a French company which was set up in 2005 and operates in renewable energy generation. The company started its activity in French Guiana then in mainland France, prior to successfully setting up in Brazil, which is currently its main area of operation. Voltalia is mainly active in wind and solar energies, but also operates in the hydropower and biomass sectors. The group consequently has a particularly attractive profile due to its multi-technology approach, but also its expertise in the entire value chain. Indeed, Voltalia is a renewable energy producer (IPP) that develops its projects in-house, by integrating the supervision of the construction (EPC) and operation (O&M) of its power plants, and also projects on behalf of third parties. 

Proparco’s investment in 2016 was part of a broader EUR 170m fundraising to finance the construction of an additional capacity of some 500 MW. With an objective of an installed capacity of 1 GW by 2019, Voltalia already has 215 MW of projects at an advanced stage of development (25% solar and 63% wind backlog, with a 47% exposure in Brazil and 40% in France). In 2019, Proparco made an additional EUR 15,416,000 investment to support its growth and geographical diversification. 

The monitoring reports on Proparco’s initial investment have confirmed the positive impacts of the group’s activity, both in terms of employment (+34% with 547 employees at the end of 2018 and +59% of jobs held by women) and the fight against climate change due to the increase in the installed capacity, the clean energy produced and the access for populations to non-polluting energy.  

Proparco’s additional investment in 2019 should strengthen these various impacts.