Solar power company Canadian Solar announced that it has agreed to a financial agreement in which Goldman Sachs Japan will establish a US$26 million project finance bond for the 10.2MW Aomori-Misawa solar power plant in Rokunohe-cho, Kamikita-gun, Aomori Prefecture, Japan.
The bond has a maturity of 20 years — including a two-year grace period — as well as a fixed coupon rate of 1.4%. Goldman Sachs Japan served as the bond arranger while Shinsei Trust and Banking acted as the lender.
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The 10.2MW plant is expected to commence operations by December 2016. Electricity generated from the project will be purchased by Tohoku Electric Power under a 20-year feed-in tariff at the rate of US$0.32 per kWh.
Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and chief executive officer of Canadian Solar, said: “We are very proud to announce this important financing arrangement in Japan. In addition to giving us access to a very low-cost source of financing for our projects, this transaction is the first asset-backed security arranged by a foreign sponsor in the Japanese PV sector. In addition, the A investment grade rating is so far the highest for all PV-related project bonds issued in Japan, a testament to the high quality and bankability of Canadian Solar's project pipeline in Japan.”