US solar company Recurrent Energy has announced the source of funding for its 300MW Ciranda solar project in Brazil, which consists of a US$100 million (BRL490 million) package.
Recurrent Energy, one of the world’s most geographically diversified utility-scale solar and energy storage project developers, noted that the project was funded through two phases, the first of which saw around US$58.1 million in investment funds raised by Vinci Partners.
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The second consisted of a US$48.1 million funding facility, provided by Brazilian state-owned development bank Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES). The company commissioned the project, in the eastern state of Pernambuco, in August this year.
The company also announced that it has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with Brazilian electric utility Copel Energia to sell power generated at the project.
“We are pleased to extend our long-standing partnership with BNDES and reinforce our presence in the Brazilian capital markets,” said Recurrent Energy CEO Ismael Guerrero. “Brazil has established itself as the largest renewable energy market in Latin America, and BNDES’s and Vinci’s participation in the funding of our solar portfolio represent a vote of confidence in the leadership position we have established in Brazil’s renewable energy sector.”
The news is the latest investment into the Brazilian solar sector made by solar manufacturing major Canadian Solar, of which Recurrent Energy is a subsidiary. The parent company announced earlier this month that it had shipped 8.3GW of new modules in the third quarter of this year, and that Brazil received the third-most Canadian Solar modules, behind only China and the US.
Canadian Solar’s bifacial BiHiKu modules are in use at the project, a range of bifacial passivated emitter and rear contact (PERC) cells. While the company plans to use PERC modules at the Ciranda project, Canadian Solar has also invested in scaling up production of tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) cells.