Swedish independent power producer (IPP) Svea Solar Utility has secured €185 million (USS$215.4 million) in finance from the Eiffel Investment Group and Arkéa Asset Management to support the development of Sweden’s largest solar PV project.
The holding company financing facility will be used to support the “development, construction and operations” of solar PV and battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Sweden, according to Svea Solar Utility.
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While the company did not specify how this financing would be deployed in particular, it noted that it already has 220MW of solar PV capacity in operation or under construction in Sweden, including a 120MW project that, upon the start of commercial operations, will be the largest in the country, with a slightly larger capacity than Alight’s 100MW Hultsfred project that started commercial operations last year.
“In today’s market environment, institutional capital concentrates behind platforms with proven execution and scale,” said Svea Solar Utility managing director Pieter Godderis. “This financing is a critical building block to grow our operational portfolio past 2GW over the next five years, while reinforcing our financial strength and long-term reliability our power purchase agreement (PPA) partners expect.”
Private financing mechanisms for European renewables were a key topic of discussion at last month’s Renewables Procurement & Revenue summit, hosted by PV Tech publisher Solar Media in London.
Experts discussed the importance of more “sophisticated” investment and trading mechanisms to get the most out of an increasingly complex array of renewable energy projects in Europe. These projects are now more likely than ever to include co-located technologies, such as solar and storage, and this is reflected in the technology mix of Svea Solar Utility’s own portfolio.
Altor to take direct control of Svea Solar Utility
Svea Solar Utility is also the utility-scale subsidiary of Svea Solar, which has been operating “largely independently” from the wider Svea Solar group, according to the group on LinkedIn. Svea Solar also announced that its majority owner, Swedish private equity firm Altor, would spin out Svea Solar Utility into a “wholly separate entity” that operates “directly under Altor”, with a new company name to be announced later this year.
“Our successful path towards profitability and increased customer satisfaction has put in place the conditions for stable and long-term growth with our energy solution, Sunbeam, at the core,” said Svea Solar CEO Mattias Ringqvist, referring to the company’s virtual power plant programme Sunbeam. “In this situation, it is logical to continue to simplify and streamline our business.”
