Investment firm Northleaf Capital Partners has sold the 494MWp Mula solar project in Spain to China Three Gorges Corporation, the state-owned Chinese power company.
The plant, located in the Murcia region of Spain, is one of Europe’s “largest” operational solar PV installations, Northleaf said, and is contracted under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA).
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Through its development and operations, the site has received backing from a number of significant financial institutions including a €280 million debt refinancing scheme from solar financier Qualitas Energy.
Northleaf said it expects the transaction to close in “early 2025”, after which point China Three Gorges will have a majority stake in the project.
“Northleaf’s successful sale of Mula underscores our ability to consistently deliver value by focusing on mid-market infrastructure assets with stable cashflow, strong yield and inflation linkage,” said Roderick Gadsby, managing director & head of European infrastructure at Northleaf. “Our approach to bilaterally sourcing, prudently growing, de-risking, and opportunistically exiting core infrastructure assets is how we achieve attractive returns for our investors across market cycles.”
No representatives of China Three Gorges commented on the acquisition. Historically, Three Gorges has been charged with developing hydroelectricity plants within and outside of China, however in recent years it has bought and built solar PV and wind projects across the world.
In July, the company announced plans to build 8GW worth of solar PV capacity in Inner Mongolia. The portfolio is part of a larger energy project, which will represent around US$11 billion investment to add solar PV, wind power and energy storage capacity and will provide power to a range of Chinese provinces via high-voltage transmission lines.
