AES Solar – a joint venture between The AES Corp. and Riverstone Holdings LLC – has closed on 77 million euros of long-term, nonrecourse financing for Elpida, a portfolio of 10 solar photovoltaic power plants totaling 27 MW located in the Lazio and Sicily regions of Italy.
The financing facility closed this past May and was used to refinance the equity advanced during the construction of the Elpida project.
Three mandated lead arrangers participated in this financing: Dexia Crediop (coordinating bank and facility agent), together with DNB Bank (technical bank) and ING Bank (insurance bank). The facility is structured as a multi-borrower transaction.
Six of the power plants (totaling 21 MW) achieved commercial operation during the second half of 2011, while construction on the remaining four PV installations (totaling 6 MW) was completed in the first quarter of this year, qualifying them for a 20-year feed-in tariff regulated under the fourth Conto Energia renewable energy tariff structure.
