Meriaura Group: Significant conditional order for solar thermal plant in Germany

Translation: Original published in Finnish on 10/16/2024 at 9:17 am EEST.

The order outlook for Renewable Energy has been further strengthened by a large district heating project in Germany, subject to a financing decision and construction permit. With the announced project, solar thermal revenue in 2025 should at least reach the level of 2024. The strong growth we are forecasting would require Meriaura to win another major supply contract.

New district heating project from Germany

Meriaura Group announced on Tuesday that its subsidiary Meriaura Energy has signed a contract for the complete supply of a solar thermal plant in Steyerberg, Germany. The customer is the local district heating company BürgerEnergie Steyerberg-Fermwärme eG. The value of the plant is estimated at around 5.3 MEUR, including both the 13,700 m2 solar thermal plant and thermal storage. The project is conditional on a financing decision and a building permit, which are expected to be secured during fall 2024. The system delivery is planned to take place in 2025. The announced project is the third major district heating project in Germany that the company has announced in about a year.

Order outlook getting close to our growth forecast for next year

The notified agreement, if implemented, will strengthen Meriaura Group's order book for 2025. Prior to this project, we estimate that the company had around 4 MEUR of solar thermal backlog that would generate revenue in 2025. This would bring the order book for 2025 to around 9 MEUR, including the contract now announced. We have forecast solar thermal solutions to generate revenue of around 13 MEUR in 2025 (an increase of 46%), which will require an additional 4 MEUR to be delivered in addition to the project announced now. If our revenue forecast materializes, we expect that the solar thermal business will still be slightly loss-making in 2025 (EBIT: -1.2 MEUR).