Ormat Technologies Israeli subsidiary, Ormat Systems, has entered into a joint venture agreement (JVA) with Sunday Energy for the development, construction and operation of solar PV energy systems in Israel, which will have a 36MW capacity. The JVA states that Sunday will provide the rights to all its property and roofs, which are required for the development of solar energy systems above 1MW, to special purpose entities (SPEs), while Ormat will own 70% of each SPE and have control of it. Ormat and Sunday will mutually act as the EPC contractor and operator of each project in accordance with each company share in the SPEs.
Lucien Y. Bronicki, chairman of the board and chief technology officer of Ormat Technologies, said, “Ormat’s commercial activity in the solar energy market is part of a strategic plan to be a leading player in renewable energy. We have a long, rich history in renewable energy that includes activity in solar energy that we believe we can leverage to bring unique benefits to this project… We are looking at this joint venture as an attractive business opportunity derived by the reduction in solar PV modules prices and the increase in their supply on one hand and the expected Israeli feed-in tariff for large solar PV systems on the other hand.”
The electricity from the projects will be sold to the Israel Electric Corporation under long-term power purchase agreements that total 20 years and will produce an estimated $30 million in annual revenues. The SPEs anticipate financing the capital expenditure with 80% non-recourse project finance debt with the estimated capital expenditure to be around $195 million.
A prior agreement with Ormat and Sunday for the construction of a 1MW solar system on the roofs of Sunday’s manufacturing facilities in Israel was announced earlier this year and the first system, with a 50kW capacity, has been installed and connected since August of 2009.
