Independent power producer (IPP) Sonnedix has secured a €260 million (US$279 million) green loan to finance the acquisition and construction of renewable energy projects in Italy.
The financing includes a greenfield project finance agreement for two PV plants in Sicily and Sardinia, with a combined capacity of around 200MW. It was agreed in December 2023 and represents one of the “largest solar project financing deals in the Italian market”, Sonnedix said.
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A pool of European banks delivered the financing through their Italian branches, including Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, CaixaBank, La Banque Postale and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank.
Sonnedix CEO, Axel Thiemann said: “Since we first entered Italy in 2010, it has remained one of our key markets, and this loan will enable us to continue to convert our pipeline of over 1.5GW in Italy alone.
“The urgent need to accelerate the energy transition continues to drive more investment in renewable energy infrastructure than ever before.”
In October last year, Sonnedix began construction on its largest European solar project to date, a 149MW site in Portugal that marked the developer’s entry into the country. In December it inked a 10-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for the project with US data company Equinix.
The Italian solar market has seen activity in the first month of 2024. Lightsource bp – the wholly-owned solar development arm of British oil giant bp – sold a 294MWp Italian solar portfolio to asset manager EOS Investment Management Group for an undisclosed sum and Canadian renewable energy firm Westbridge Renewables entered the market last week with the purchase of land and grid access for 62MW worth of solar PV.
This is off the back of a 2023 which saw record-breaking electricity generation levels from Italy’s solar PV fleet and a target of 4GW of added solar power, the most capacity additions seen in Italy in a decade.
PV Tech publisher Solar Media will be organising the 12th annual edition of Large Scale Solar Europe in Lisbon, Portugal, 26-27 March. The event will explore the solar manufacturing future in Europe, panel on several markets including Italy, Ireland and Czechia as well as permitting and planning bottlenecks among others. More information, including how to attend, can be read here.