Spanish renewable power developer Zelestra has added €225 million (US$242.1 million) in loan financing to its funding streams, increasing its total investment to €535 million (US$757.7 million), as it looks to develop new clean energy projects in what it calls “five strategic markets”.
The company, which rebranded from Solarpack last week, has a portfolio of 20GW of clean electricity generating capacity across 13 countries, and plans to add both renewable power generation and storage capacity to this portfolio. The latest round of loan financing will be provided by banks ABN AMRO, BNP Paribas, CIBC, Mizuho and Rabobank, and the financing facility will now function for four years, until March 2028.
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The financing will go towards projects in southern Europe, Germany, Latin America, India and the US, markets where Zelestra has a growing footprint. Earlier this year, the company announced a 482MW solar-wind hybrid facility in India, with a power purchase agreement (PPA) in place with state-owned utility SJVN, as it looks to expand its portfolio.
“Zelestra is on a journey of exponential growth, and the increase in financing is a crucial part of this path,” said Zelestra chief financial officer Luis Alvargonzález. “This expanded financial capacity is a testament to the enormous confidence that lenders have in the company’s growth plan.”
The company noted that the new financing facility received a “2.4 times oversubscription,” suggesting significant interest in new financing streams for renewable power projects. This echoes a sentiment made by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) earlier this year, with the research provider suggesting that the world invested a record US$1.8 trillion into energy transition projects in 2023.
Money is not the only limiting factor if the world is to realise its solar power installation goals, however. Earlier this year, BNEF analyst Jenny Chase told PV Tech Premium that: “the challenge for solar investment isn’t finding the money, it’s finding good projects,” and how Zelestra plans to deploy its sizable financial reserves could have significant impact on the solar industries of its target markets.
