Estonian independent power producer (IPP) Sunly has secured €65.9 million (US$71 million) towards the development and construction of 98MW worth of solar PV projects in Poland.
Delivered as a non-recourse project financing deal from Polish banking group mBank, the funding will be used to develop a 98MW portfolio of 58 PV projects, predominantly in the south of Poland in the provinces of Małopolska, Opole, Podkarpackie, Silesia, and Świętokrzyskie. It will also cover the refinancing of Sunly’s existing Polish project portfolio, most notably its 60MW Rzezawa project near the city of Krakow.
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“From the outset, Poland has been a highly attractive market for us,” said founder and CEO of Sunly Priit Lepasepp. Indeed, in October 2022 the company raised €200 million to support its operations in Poland and the Baltics. The market has become one of the most prominent in the EU for solar PV and renewables more widely; an October 2023 report by PV Tech Premium looked into the role that new “cable pooling” legislation could play in alleviating Poland’s grid bottleneck and adding yet more stimulus to its renewables market.
“Industry forecasts suggest that within the next three years, installed [solar] capacity is expected to double, and Sunly aims to contribute substantially to this growth,” Lepasepp continued. “In the coming years, we plan to build solar farms and wind power plants together with battery storage in Poland and the Baltics with a total capacity of 4.6 GW.”
As of Q3 2023, Poland’s total installed solar PV capacity had exceeded 18GW, with 6.6GW worth of new grid connection permits granted in the year since Q3 2022. Just last week, Norwegian energy company Statkraft inked a power purchase agreement (PPA) in Poland with Danish solar developer Better Energy for 212MW worth of solar PV capacity.
