Vertically integrated solar power provider SunEdison and its ‘yield co’ subsidiary will build 85.2MW of UK PV across five plants, having secured financing from Santander and Bayerische Landesbank.
The projects already featured on the ‘call right list’ of TerraForm Power, the yield co vehicle, giving it the option to buy. SunEdison said the deal was expected to close in the early part of this year. Incidentally, a deal on the table for TerraForm to purchase First Wind would make the company the world's biggest developer of renewable energy.
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The two banks arranged the deal, with Santander’s UK department acting as agent. Through non-recourse bridge loans worth £35 million from each of them over a two year period, the total financed amount will be £70 million.
According to SunEdison, the projects will be completed during the first quarter of this year, adding them to the expected annual “mad rush” in the UK as developers race to complete and connect to the grid before financial support levels drop at the end of March. This year also sees UK support for large-scale solar drop from the current Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) to a new and complex system, Contracts for Difference (CfDs). SunEdison says construction has already begun on the five plants.
SunEdison’s president for EMEA and Latin America, Jose Perez, hailed the company’s “milestone”.
“Securing funds to meet the capital requirements of these projects is another significant milestone for SunEdison this year and strengthens our position as a key player in the solar energy industry in the UK, where we have interconnected 250MW since 2013.”
Meanwhile, Santander UK’s head of acquisition and finance Alejandro Ciruelos hailed SunEdison as one of its “most important clients in the renewable energy sector”. Also commenting was Bayerische Landesbank's Alexander von Dobschutz, who hailed the UK as “an important strategic market for our international project finance business”.