SunEdison Inc. has closed a $212.5 million non-recourse debt financing arrangement with the World Bank's International Finance Corp. (IFC) and the Overseas Private Investment Corp. (OPIC), the U.S. government's development finance institution. The debt proceeds will be used to finance the construction of a SunEdison-owned 100 MW solar power plant in Chile's Atacama Desert.
The IFC provided $65 million of debt, while the OPIC provided a $147.5 million parallel loan. Netherlands-based Rabobank also provided a local funding worth $45 million, bringing the total value of the transaction to approximately $260.5 million.
The construction of the Amanecer Solar CAP plant began in August, and its interconnection is expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2014. The project originated from an agreement signed in January with the mining and steel company CAP.
‘We are very pleased to partner once more with OPIC and IFC,’ says Pancho Perez, president of SunEdison for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. ‘Amanecer Solar CAP is a landmark project that enables the deployment of solar energy in Chile in a meaningful way.’
Located in the town near the city of Copiapo, the project covers about 530 acres and is using more than 300,000 SunEdison Silvantis photovoltaic modules mounted on SunEdison AP90 single-axis solar trackers. Once fully completed, it is expected to generate 270 GWh of electricity per year.
