Good morning, welcome to Grenergy Renovables' Q1 2023 results presentation. I am Alberto Sánchez, Director of Investor Relations, and I am joined today by David Ruiz de Andrés, our CEO, Daniel Lozano, our Chief Strategy and Capital Markets Officer, and Rocío Fernández, our Director of Sustainability. They are going to take you through our business, financial and ESG review. At the end of the presentation, there will be a Q&A session for sell-side analysts. I hand over to our CEO, David Ruiz de Andrés.
Thank you. Thank you, Alberto, and thanks everyone for attending. As you will see during the presentation, we have modified the way we are presenting some information, and we are including some interesting operational KPIs for the first time. We keep disclosing the project by project info in the appendixes. Basically, no changes there, right? We are trying to make the presentation simpler and a bit more straightforward to allow more time for Q&A. Moving to slide three, some of the key messages. We are very happy to announce we've had a very solid operational execution with further expansion in assets in operation and under construction on total platform, as we will see in the next slide.
I think we're quickly becoming one of the largest developer in the three regions where we operate, with a total platform 14 GW and already close to 10 GWh of storage projects, which will become very relevant for us. Moving to the PPAs, we have already signed 1.4 GW. Only in the first quarter, we have 728 MW. According to Pexapark, we are number two in Europe, and after Iberdrola, number one in PV. More importantly, we have 1.5 GW under negotiation, mainly in Chile, but also in Spain and some of the new markets for us, like the U.S. We will soon give visibility to more than 3 GW of projects.
Going to the total volume of contracted revenues, we have now contracted more than EUR 2 billion. I think this is giving us high visibility on future earnings. This is just to give you some information, this is more than 50% coming from Spain or around 35% coming from Chile. Going to our Build to Sell activity, well, we transfer, as we already announced, 21 MW, nearly 22 MW in Chile. This is business as usual for us, transfer of PMGD projects. Going to Valkyria, and we can elaborate more during the Q&A, we are on track. We are planning to give some news at the end of July or at the end of June even or during July.
Everything is on track and according to the calendar. It's very important the IRRs are stable at double digits, benefiting from high energy prices and a still declining CapEx for solar. I think we are witnessing now the all-time record low prices for solar, and in the case of panels, they're for the first time, I think, going below the threshold of $0.20 per watt. I think this is very important that we are keeping consistently a double-digit IRRs for our projects, both in Spain and in Latin America. Moving to financial performance, and I think Daniel will give you more info. Revenues of EUR 96 million.
This is more than 100% higher year-on-year. EBITDA of EUR 14.3 million, driven by energy and asset rotation in Chile, as we explained. This will grow exponentially next quarters. Net income of EUR 5 million, it would have been higher if not. Finally, due to the forex difference test, due to the rally of the euro against the US dollar in March, we otherwise the result would have been EUR 3 million-EUR 4 million higher than this. Net debt, EUR 445 million. We will elaborate more on this. On a higher CapEx of EUR 78 million just in the quarter, this is I think quite relevant, and working capital needs of EUR 50 million-EUR 51 million.
We closed the period with a strong cash position of EUR 100 million plus more than EUR 100 million of undrawn lines. Well, we are expecting a strong inflow of cash in the next quarters, both from our increasing number of operational plants and our Build to Sell subdivision, both with Valkyria and other deals. I think we are very confident that these funds will be sufficient to undertake our investment plans for 2023-2024. This is why we state here that we are, we feel confident we are fully funded for 2023-2024, as we have many times stated in the past.
Talking about our ESG in terms of our highlights in ESG, our ESG roadmap, 2020-2023 will be successfully completed at the end of this year. Also next one, the next roadmap, we are already working on it, will be initiated in early 2024, it will contain a new set of challenging commitments to be implemented along the next three years. One of the most remarkable accomplishment of this first quarter was the elaboration and the first time external verification by KPMG of the sustainability report 2022, which has been successfully audited. In terms of the ESG recognition by the well-known rating agencies, I'm very happy to announce that we keep being considered a top rank in company in ESG performance.
This year we are willing to revalidate and even maintain this leadership position between our peers. I think Rocío, our new head of ESG, will provide more information later in the presentation. Moving to the next slide, I think the key messages here, the total platform has now reached 14 GW, including again 1.8 GW in operation or under construction, right? I think it's a very important change from last quarter, basically, coming from, as we'll see next slide, from an important increase in the U.S. market, which is quickly becoming our core market for us. We have, as you know, three platforms.
I think the picture is very well-balanced now, both in solar and storage. In solar, we are close to 4 GW on each platform. Again, I mean, this is very remarkable for us, we already have close to 10 GWh in storage. I think we will give plenty more visibility on this business in the future presentations, right? There is a sharp increase in early-stage projects to 6 GW. This is anticipating a very busy 2026 and 2027. Many projects, which are now in advanced development will make it very soon to backlog. Moving to the next slide. Well, again, solar portfolio reached 12.5 GW. It's led by the USA, 1.4 GW more. Already our largest platform.
Chile and Spain are our most mature platforms with 2.7 GW and 1.8 GW respectively. Very good progress in Italy. Already stands at 1.2 GW. I think before the end of this year, we might give good news in Italy, meaning that we will start our first construction works in the country, in the Italian platform. Also very good progress in Poland, already above 1 GW. I think I would like to outline that we are back in Mexico, there's new pipeline being added in Mexico. We are back in this market hopefully, I think, two, three years from now, it will be an important market for us once again. Moving to the next slide about storage. Storage remains very key at Grenergy.
We expect this area to be very transformational for our industry. We are active both in the standalone and segment and collocation in most markets. No big pipeline changes with added capacity in the U.S. We are reiterating our 2025 targets of 1 GWh , which I think now might start to seem quite conservative. Until it's going to be, and I think this is great news for us, the great testing laboratory worldwide in collocation of PV and BESS. We are leaders in this market, and we are very lucky once again to be there. I think we've got great plans for a start in this market. A few words on PPAs.
You know, PPAs are critical at this point in, in the market to obtain financing and therefore delivery of projects. Again, we very proud we announced 728 MW in Q1. We are becoming one of the most more active sellers of green energy in Europe. I think only behind Iberdrola in the first quarter. We've already signed and secured 1.4 GW of PPAs globally, and 1.1 in Spain, 0.3 in Chile. We have very advanced negotiations of 1.5 GW, mostly in Chile. We will give, I think, some good news very, very soon.
At the group level, we now have slightly higher than 75% contracted output in, at group level, and again, more than EUR 2 billion of contracted revenues. So this is giving us a lot of visibility for the next few years. I think we are very confident, and as long as the sun keeps shining and our off-takers continue in all Investment Grade off-takers, continue honoring their commitments, we have a lot of visibility on our revenues. I think I give the floor from this point to Daniel. Thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you, David. Let's move on to the financial review that starts in slide number eight. As you can see, we have modified the way we are presenting our financial update. It's the first time we are including operating data. As you can see, total output increased by 44% due to the new capacity and better load factors. We have 72% of volume contracted. That represented an increase of 75% compared with previous year. Realized price increased by 6%, showing very limited impact from lower merchant prices. On the right side, you have a summary of the main KPIs that we are going to explain later. Just to remark the impressive increase of 12% of our tangible asset in just one quarter to EUR 653 million.
At the same time, we have been able to increase our total equity by 11% to EUR 272 million. If you can look at slide nine, we can see that in Q1 2023, total revenue reached EUR 96 million. That is 105% increase year-over-year, more than twice the previous year figure. EBITDA increases to EUR 14.3 million. That is 94% year-over-year. The development and division was driven by the disposal of two PMGDs, you know, distribution asset in Chile. That was EUR 11 million with high margins. The energy division was driven by higher output, +44% on new capacity, mainly in Chile and Colombia, and better load factors, as explained before.
It is the first time we are separating our retail supply business in Chile as it is growing, the dynamics are different for the energy business. EBITDA for this area is expected to be neutral in 2023 and positive from 2024 as for next year, we are going to have more solar PV projects producing, that will contribute to increased margins. Moving on to slide 10, we can see that in Q1 2023, total CapEx reached EUR 77.6 million. Project CapEx was EUR 64 million, split 45% in Spain, in Chile, 55% in Chile, PMGDs and Gran Teno that is connected by the year-end. Development CapEx accelerated, driven especially in the U.S. after taking over 100% control of Sofos Harbert solar developer.
CapEx per megawatt is back to the level of 2020 and well below the 2021, 2022 levels that were affected by the sharp inflation in key cost item. The decline in unit CapEx is driven by lower logistic and, most importantly, module cost due to the increase in global industrial capacity and polysilicon production. CapEx is below EUR 0.5 million. Due to CapEx deflation and PPA levels we are closing, IRRs remain stable and attractive at double-digit levels. That is offsetting the impact from higher interest rate. Let's go to a slide which is numbered 11, which is playing the cash flow of the period. Working capital deterioration is temporary and due to seasonality and reclassification of some supplier debt into financial debt. Supplier debt related to equipment, ordering advance prevents supply chain and logistic issue.
This is a temporary issue that should gradually unwind in the following quarters. We are closing the period with a cash position of almost EUR 100 million. If you can look at slide 12, our net debt and leverage has increased to EUR 445 million and 7.9 times leverage ratio. It was due to the increase in CapEx and temporary working capital outflow. 2023 and 2024 will be capital intensive as we have large projects under construction, mainly in Spain and Chile. We are aware that our leverage is high, and we do not intend to go beyond these levels. We expect to substantial deleverage by the year-end. Bear in mind that our leverage ratio is also affected by timing of our investment and when those investments become productive.
Belinchón project almost fully funded and not yet contributed to EBITDA. Leverage will have been 6.7 times , assuming an EBITDA run rate for that project. If we additionally exclude the temporary working capital outflow, leverage would have been 6 times. We are fully funded for 2023 to 2024, taking into consideration the contribution from our asset in operation. It now includes Wellington, the working capital reversal from Q1 levels, and the equity recycling from upcoming Project Finance deals and our Build to Sell strategy. Now, we're moving on to ESG. I'll hand you over to Rocío. Thank you.
Thank you, Daniel. I would like to start by highlighting that ESG matters are the core of Grenergy, so its fulfillment impacts in every one of you. Today, I will invite you all to carefully follow the ESG advances of the quarter and to feel involved in their progress. I am pleased to announce that the three objective committed for the first quarter of the year was successfully accomplished. Firstly, Sustainability report was audited for the first time without any deviation. Secondly, an IT tool for ESG performance reporting and management was acquired to better improve the capture of ESG information, hence ensuring transparency, reliability, and data traceability. Last but not least, a compliance training and communication plan was implemented by launching periodic activities to ensure raise awareness.
Apart from that, currently, all expected goal for the second quarter are well advanced, and a step forward is taken with relevant progress in some actions for the third and fourth quarter. For instance, the designing of the new ESG roadmap for the next three years. This will be a crucial milestone to be accomplished in 2023, and it will be not only the engine, but also the GPS of our sustainability actions. Moving to the next slide. In terms of our performance and strategy regarding ESG ratings, I would like to emphasize the fact that Grenergy persists to maintain its leadership position in a growing number of prestigious ESG rating agencies, such as CDP, Refinitiv, Sustainalytics, MSCI, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and ESS. As you can see in the figures, all the scores are higher than the previous year and higher than our peers.
Despite these promising scores, we are making a huge effort to improve some detected gaps and improvement areas to be able to keep the top ground position also in 2023. That's all from my side. Thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much, Rocío. We are now moving to the Q&A session. If you have any question, please send a message to the administrator, using the chat available in the tool. Just let him know that you want to ask a question. You don't have to write it down. Please limit to one question per analyst. Our first question comes from RBC. Fernando Garcia, please go ahead.
Is Miguel, can you unmute Fernando?
Okay. I see him now, no? Correct.
Yes.
Okay. Good morning, Alberto. Thank you, Daniel, for the presentation as well. My question, David, it's about your comment of being fully funded for 2023, 2024. They are probably what I would like to know how much of that is explained by Valkyria divestment, how much about changes in project financing conditions. They are. I would appreciate if you can provide details about interest costs, leverage, et cetera. I am particularly interested about changes that you are experimenting in the last, let's say, three, six months. That is my question. Thank you.
Thank you, Fernando, good morning. Well, when we say we are fully funded, this is nothing new. I mean, you know, we raised capital 2 times. Last one, I think, roughly a year ago and the previous year, altogether close to EUR 200 million. We always said we were fully funded. I mean, we had fully funded our capital needs for 2024. It's really a combination of, you know, we have several sources right now. The more plants obviously we have operational, the more inflow of cash coming from those plants. I think in the long term, this will be our main source of finance. We've been very active in build and sell.
We will keep doing Build to Sell as we have shown in the first quarter. We have some also potential deals during the year. Obviously we have Valkyria, which is a different type of deal because we are intending to sell 49% of. It will be also very important to fund our needs for 2024 and even farther. This is what I mean. We are pretty confident and very optimistic about all this process. This is what we say when we mean that we are fully funded. What, your question about a Project Finance, we still see. I mean, we see the market very liquid at this point.
We, you know, we are. About the interest rates, we just hedge the funds we need for our, a large Project Finance we are closing in Chile for Gran Teno, Tamango. This is in U.S. dollars. We are talking about an all-in of 6.6, 6.20 maximum right now. This is coming from a base of 4.4, 4.5, plus a spread of 160, 170 basis point. This is in U.S. denominated deals. When we are talking about in Spain, well, we now might be talking about the 3.4, 3.5 as a base rate, and the spreads are narrowing from the banks.
We are now working with 170, 180. Altogether we are still below 5%. I think even I would say 4%, 4.5% all included. I think it's a very liquid market. I think having the PPAs as we have, it's becoming more and more important to access cheap and effective financing. That's more or less the situation.
Thank you, David.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Fernando. Our next question comes from Barclays. Naish Cui, please go ahead.
Hey. Good morning, everyone. Can you hear me?
Yes. Very clearly.
Perfect. Thanks for taking my question. Just one around cash flow, perhaps. Just wonder. I understand you want to spend a bit more in advance to help you progress your project development. Just wonder you have any idea whether you can provide a bit of guidance on your full year CapEx. Also, do you mind providing a little bit more color on your working capital outflows this year, this quarter? It's about EUR 44 million, quite a lot. Are we expecting that to be reversed in the next quarter or probably for the next few quarters? A bit of color on the cash flow will be great. Thank you.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Cheers. Thanks for your question. I think, well, maybe Daniel can give you more color on the working capital. For us, it's something expected. I mean, we are. I think it's a temporary effect on Q1. We are now expecting a reverse in Q2, since we are drawing some money from with non-recourse from project finance in Latin America, and we will reduce the balance of short-term corporate debts. I think Daniel can give you more light. In terms of CapEx, it's no secret that we will keep increasing that. We need to make. We are doing our deliveries. It's quite impressive for us to deliver already more than EUR 75 million this quarter.
We will be increasing, right? I think minimum during this year, EUR 350 million is the minimum CapEx that we will deliver this year. I think it might be slightly higher than this figure. We will try to be flexible. I think one of the great things we have been an integrated players is that we can move very quickly. We can use some funds on our credit lines to accelerate the execution of some projects. We don't need to wait all the time for the drawdowns coming from the Project Finance that sometimes it's a bit more expensive and sometimes it takes longer, right? We have this flexibility, and this is what we have been doing in every project. Maybe Daniel can give you a few more words on working capital.
Just to mention that working capital facility that is going to the financial debt, is moving out of the net debt in these quarters to supplier debt, so will not affect leverage ratio.
Okay. Understand. Thank you, David. Thank you, Daniel.
Okay. Cheers. Thank you.
Thanks very much, Nash. Our next question comes from Henry Tarr at Berenberg. Please, Henry, go ahead.
Hi there, guys, thanks very much for the presentation. Just a couple of questions. I'll limit myself. On the around the discussions for Valkyria and the other Build to Sell developments, have you seen the sort of prices impacted by higher rates, or are you still sort of seeing quite attractive prices coming through for those assets? Secondly, you've split out the retail supply business. I understand it's a relatively small part of the business today, could you just give me a little bit more around the details for that business, and the potential for it as we look out into 2024, 2025? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Your first question, whether we see that prices have been impacted by interest rates. Well, it's, you know, it's not easy to compare apples with apples, right? Every megawatt, it's different. If you're selling something that it was financed three years ago with a very low interest rate, and this is fixed, well, you might have a huge gap between a lower project IRR and a higher and much higher equity IRR. Now we are having, I would say, much higher project IRR since we, you know, we secured the PPAs in the mid-40s compared to even low 30s or mid-30s, like two, three years ago. Also CapEx has been going down in the last since the peak in 2021.
What really matters if you are rotating one asset is the gross margin you make per megawatt, right? Now even with a lower price per megawatt, you can make a higher margin because it's you have a lower CapEx. That's more or less how we see the situation. Still now I think the higher the share that you have contracted with an Investment Grade, and even if this is a pay-as-produced, this is what we normally have, I think you have a more robust asset, and I think these type of assets has much higher demand than a full merchant asset. That's another tendency that we are now seeing in the market.
About our retail supply business, it's, well, as you say, it's not something very material for us at this point. We always we have been looking at possibilities of and opportunities in the retail segment. I think two, three years ago we looked at opportunities in Spain, whether it would make sense to integrate the retail business. Finally, since, you know, for us it's obviously much easier to sell all your energy to Amazon if the price is good enough. It's a lot simpler than creating a retail business with a basket of different off-takers. In Chile, we followed that strategy in the to kind of hedge the merchant plan we have there in Atacama at Quillagua.
This is how this retail division was kind of born. This is what it is now, from now, I think it makes sense, and this is a fantastic opportunity to develop a retail division in Chile. I'm talking about just targeting large clients. I think there are 3,000 potential free clients in Chile. This is the type of projects, of clients that we will close. I think, if you look at Gran Teno, I think it will be the first project that will get online in Q3, Q4 in Chile. Around 60% of the energy will be sold to an investment grade utility, this is something we have already announced.
The remaining 40% will be purchased by our retail division, and we will resell that energy to several large clients, and I think we can make a bigger margin there. Obviously, we know the market very well in Chile, and it's something that we want to make sure we have no nodal risk or we have no profile risk on this type of resale activity, right? Because that's really been a very important point in Chile. So we know a lot about this market. When we resell that energy, we will try to make sure we leave no open positions or open risks.
I think, we will give more visibility in next presentations about this retail activity, which right now it's really, I think it's not very material.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Henry. Our next question comes from Flora Trindade from CaixaBank BPI. Flora, please go ahead.
Yes. Hi. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I would like to ask on the PPAs you've closed during the first quarter. Can you confirm that these PPAs and the ones you are negotiating are around the mid-40s? What is the level of merchant position that you would be comfortable, considering the view you have on wholesale prices going forward? Thank you.
Hi, Flora. Thank you very much. Sorry, I lost the signal for five seconds. What was your second question? I don't think. Your first question is about the PPAs. About the second one? Oh, maybe you're mute. Please. Anyway, I can. I'll get you back. Yeah.
I was mute. I'm not anymore. Sorry.
Yeah. Okay.
No, you mentioned in the presentation, 23% merchant from 2026. Just wondering if you aim to reduce this percentage considering the view you have, and especially because over half of your revenues would come from Spain, so it's a market where there are a lot of doubts with all this new capacity coming on stream.
Yeah.
If you can share your view on the exposure to merchants, especially in Spain, I think it would be interesting. Thank you.
Okay. Okay. Thank you, Flora. Very clear. Well, as you know, we are leaving these slides in the appendices, right? That's something which is very relevant because we disclosed the off-taking strategy project by project. We keep. If you look at Spain and you have now Tabernas III and José Cabrera are under construction, right? This all the energy is, has been sold to Amazon, and we have closed a 75% 15 years PPA with them. There are opportunities for hedging the extra 25%. We believe that at this point it's really not the best. I think leaving a 25% exposure, it's still a good strategy. Just keep in mind that we are leaving this for 15 years.
There might be some concerns about merchant in Spain in the next two, three years. I think that there are very important things going on, and we might see a very different picture four, five years from now. You're talking about contracting 15 years, so your strategy is a long-term strategy, right? We believe is fine. Yes, we have closed. We don't disclose the price, but they're in the mid, in the mid-forties, right? The same for León del Viento PPA, which we announced. I think, considering that some of the projects that will come online now, like Gran Teno and Tamango, are gonna be contracted nearly 100%, plus the PMGDs that are naturally regulated assets, right?
I think we can even move to a higher percentage of our total energy contracted, maybe between 80% and 85% and 50%, merchant. I'm talking about the whole picture.
Okay. Thank you very much, Flora. Our next question comes from Jorge Guimarães from JB Capital. Jorge, please go ahead.
Hi. Good morning, everyone. Actually, I was about to ask about CapEx evolution, but since no one asked until now, I'll take the opportunity to ask about Valkyria. What is the current stage of the process? When can we expect news? Taking back one of the questions that already been made, if the interest rates rise has somewhat reduced your price expectation, you mentioned a EUR 0.9 million-EUR 1.1 million per megawatt range. If you still see that range or closer to the low end, I mean, how do you see the price of the deal? Effectively, an update on the deal. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Jorge. Buenos dias. Well, it's great that you ask. Also, you mentioned the CapEx because it's on the supply chain. It's no longer a hot topic, so we don't get many questions, but it's fine now. I think its logistics are back to pre-COVID level. I think our, you know, I think that the panels are in a record low point now and the rest of components. I would say only the substation and interconnection is higher, and we are looking at some bottlenecks in the delivery of transformers and substations, right? That's the main point of concern now, but the rest seems pretty fine.
Talking about Valkyria, I think I have already mentioned, and, you know, we cannot really comment much about the deal because we are quite restricted. We can say that it remains on track. The calendar remains unchanged, and we expect announcement at the end of June, July. We still remain in the same. Again, we are not talking, you know, there are several, there are very different assets included in this project. And the range is fine. I mean, in some of the assets, we even might expect slightly higher than 1.1. In some other, it will be close to the low range.
Keep in mind that at least it's 75% contracted. Our valuation sensitivity is not that driven by merchant prices like other deals. Yeah. This is where we're in Valkyria. The moment we have some news, we will make it public. I think we will even organize a call to explain to you the details of the outcome of the deal.
Thank you very much, Jorge. Our next question comes from Anis ZGAYA from ODDO. Anis, please go ahead. Okay. We will come back to Anis in a couple of minutes. Next question comes from Daniel Rodríguez from Bestinver. Daniel, please go ahead.
Hello, good morning. Well, I actually have two questions, but I'll try to keep only to one. The first question is, as you give a lot of information on the evolution of the backlog, I have realized that the backlog is evolving negatively over the last few quarters. I mean, backlog was around 750 MW in September 2022, and now we are around 230. Is this something we should be worried about? I mean, because at the end, the backlog is feeding the assets that you are going to put in construction over the next 12 months. I don't know if you are expecting a big step up of backlog in the near future, something.
Just if I may, yes, I would like a quick update on the situation of the Chilean market and prices. I know that you are not directly affected, as you are a very good experts, it's always helpful to have your insights on the market if I may. Many thanks.
Thank you. Thank you very much. About your first question, it's. Well, you know, we like to explain you the evolution of our pipeline with this inverted pyramid. Yeah. I know really the size of our pipeline is not really pricing in companies like us now, but for us it's extremely important, right? Because it gives you an idea of where we are planning to be a few years from now. Well, there has been a very important increase in early-stage opportunities, more than 2 GW, right? Just in one quarter. This basically means that the 2 GW that were previously in identified opportunities, we are already investing money in development. We only invest money in development if we believe that one project will one day get built.
It's really good news. It's giving a lot of visibility from 2026 to 2027. This very sharp increase is mainly coming from the new markets like the U.S. and Italy, Poland. Very soon, I think next update, we will start giving light on our first projects in Germany, right? That's where we are. Going to your question, you know, it's a very dynamic industry, projects move, they go down. Having a low figure of backlog, well, on one side it's good news because many of the projects that were there before moved to under construction, right? I think we are very transparent.
I go back to the slides or, you know, the main change is being driven by the start of construction works in Tabernas, José Cabrera, all the projects that we are selling the energy to Amazon and are part of Valkyria. This is the situation now. In the next update, we are very optimistic that, well, on one side, Clara Campoamor project, and I think we might get good news with environmental permits as early as next week or in two weeks maximum from now, because the deadline is 31st of May and everything seems positive so far. Part of this project has been contracted with León del Viento.
The moment we get the environmental permits, I think we will move this project to backlog, so it will be a big change. Also, we are in very advanced negotiations with some projects that are nearly ready to build in the north of Chile, mainly Quillagua, the second phase of Quillagua and Gabriela. There is a very high possibility that these two projects move very soon to backlog. Altogether, we are talking about maybe in the next update, 800 MW or 900 MW more in backlog, apart from PMGDs and everything. It's a very dynamic picture and, but we always show the situation as it is. I think we've no concerns really on this low level of backlog, which is definitely very temporary now. About your second question about Chile.
We're very happy to get questions about Chile because we, you know, it's really our core market. I think we can now say that no other company has connected more plants in the market. I think more than 70 so far. I think at the end of next year, we will be the company that has connected more megawatts, not just more projects, right? We're really a player there. We know the market very well. There's been some, you know, some projects have been struggling with the distribution company's PPAs.
We never believe in those PPAs because, you know, we always believe it was better to have a plant full merchant than having a plant in the north of Chile, where you have to sell your energy at one price, and then you have to buy energy in different nodes in all around the country and then deliver the energy during 13 hours. You're supposed to know the differences and you are supposed to the profile risk of your plant. You know, everything seems to go fine until prices skyrocket, especially at night, that's the main reason that several of those projects are now in trouble, right? We don't have this type of PPAs. We never believe in them.
The PPAs we have announced in Chile for Gran Teno, and I think it will be the same type of PPAs that we will be announcing very soon, are very similar to the PPAs we are closing in Spain. It's pay-as-produced, so we are taking no profile risk, right? We are selling the energy whenever it gets generated. Also there is no another risk because the offtaker is buying the energy at the plant, so whatever the energy is generated, right? We've got no another risk. We are very confident and this is the way to move forward in Chile. I think there is a fantastic opportunity for storage in Chile.
Again, I think we believe this will be the first market where PV in collocation with storage, just with energy trading plus capacity payments without any other incentive, really, numbers are working and this is where we're gonna see a boom in the storage in market, in utility scale segment, and also at the PMGDs. It will be a very, very interesting market to watch in the next few quarters.
Okay. Thank you very much, Daniel. We are going to try again with Anis ZGAYA at ODDO . Anis, please go ahead.
Yes. Thank you. Do you hear me?
Yes, very clearly, Anis. How are you doing?
Yes. Yeah. Thank you for taking my question, and sorry for I had a technical problem.
No worries.
My main question on Valkyria have been asked, so I have one further question, one remaining question on the permitting process. Some actors are speaking about acceleration and the granting of permits in Spain. Are you confirming this trend, especially for your large project in Spain, Clara Campoamor? Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Yes. I. Well, in my previous question I commented on Clara Campoamor. Well, it's true that it's been, we've been struggling with permitting for many years in Spain, but, you know, the good news is that we only lost 50 MW in Tabernas project that originally was 300. All the other projects of this, let's say, generation of projects, large utility scale projects in Spain, the permits have been obtained. Clara Campoamor had a different deadline, so it's really two projects. They're evacuating in the same substations, but in the same, in Tres Cantos, in Madrid, right? But, but they're two projects. One project is 300 MW. It's the deadline is 31st of May.
I think so far all reports are showing that we will get good news. Maybe if we lose, it might be 25 MW-30 MW maximum. We might get the environmental permits of this first 300. There's a second batch of 275. I think the deadline is September. I think we are also quite positive. That's it in Spain for let's call this generation of large utility scale plants. It's fine. It doesn't mean that we don't keep struggling in many other markets with permitting. I think Italy is quite promising. We have the first project. We will move them to backlog, I think, quite soon. We are now talking with different offtakers. Amazon is a possibility again.
I mean, in Italy, it really depends on every region. Some regions are going better. I don't think it's the hot topic now. I think things are getting slightly better, I have to say, in permitting in general, right? You always want everything to get done faster, but I think in general it's... the situation is better. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Anish. Our next question comes from Paul Chavran at Kempen. Please, Paul, go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. I just have a question on the comments that you made on returns. You mentioned that you have stable IRR at double digits, which is very reassuring. The question is, stable as compared to when? Is it compared to last year or before the CapEx inflation started in 2020, 2021? I think more importantly, over the same period, how has your WACC changed? I would assume that your WACC has increased and that mechanically there is a decrease of the value creation, so of the spread between IRR and WACC. Yeah, it would be great if you could help me reconcile these numbers. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much for the question, which is quite relevant. I think it's. Obviously our WACC expectation is, well, is higher in every market due the new environment of interest rates. I think this has penalized our, you know, our industry as a whole. I think it has been offtake, you know, the. It's been offset by higher the possibility of securing PPAs as a higher price. As I mentioned, right? You know, we were not in double-digit project IRRs only two years ago in a country like Spain.
If you are selling now your energy at, let's say 45 EUR per standard PPA at 45, and you have a yield of 2,000 hours, means that you're generating like 90,000 EUR per megawatt. This is turnover, a bit down of maybe 75 EUR, and the CapEx is below 650 EUR all included. This is how we are getting, it's no secret, the double-digit IRR right now, and this is offsetting the higher expectation that we both have, if you are rotating the asset in a Build to Sell asset, the bidder has. It's really a combination of higher energy prices, lower CapEx, higher return expectations.
We are offsetting, and I think we're doing pretty well. I think it's not that different in Chile. The situation is simple because we are making very consistent returns and we are securing in this case, PPAs indexed to inflation. We are closing the PPAs at very reasonable prices, and we are offsetting the higher expectation of returns.
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. If, can just follow on that.
Sure.
Is it fair to say that the value creation for new projects, essentially really the spread between IRR and WACC remains unchanged despite the fact that WACC has increased? Is it fair to put it that way?
Yeah. I would say that in some cases, if you look at a good example of this, it's the, you know, we just rotate assets in Chile. I think, to be honest, at one point we said, "Okay, I think we're not gonna keep this, making these margins of close to half a million USD per megawatt," right? We are creating a lot of value. Why is that if the expectation of the buyer has increased the return expectations maybe by two or by 200 basic points?
This is because the prices have increased and this is why we are keeping very high prices for these type of assets like EUR 1.1-1.3 million. We are still creating a lot of value and in some cases with a lower price, you have a lower price of CapEx. I'm talking now about Valkyria or projects or deals that we are securing now, and you are creating similar if not better value creation per megawatt because you're securing the PPA at a higher price, and this is offsetting the return expectation. Definitely something we have to keep an eye on this, right? The more important, the great news now is securing the PPA, right?
Securing the offset agreement because merchant is, I think it's a very different story right now.
Okay. Many thanks.
Many thanks, Paul. We do not have further questions at this stage. I don't know if anyone want to ask a last question?
I think it's. We are over the time, so.
Okay. Perfect. If there is no further question, we will just want to thank you for your attendance to this conference call, please do not hesitate to come back to us to the IR team if you want to have further details. Thank you very much.
Cheers. Thank you. Have a great day.
Thank you.