Tier-one module manufacturer and project developer Canadian Solar has closed a £35 million project finance agreement with Investec for a group of UK solar farms.
The four projects, totalling 40.2MW are spread across England and will be dropped into the company’s yieldco later in 2015. All were connected in March 2015 and qualified for the renewable obligation (RO) subsidy scheme before it closed to projects over 5MW in size.
“The UK market is an important component of our strategy to build and own solar power plants that we plan to drop into a yieldco vehicle in the months ahead,” said Dr Shawn Qu, chairman and CEO, Canadian Solar. “Our goal is to continue investing in the UK and we look forward to continue working with Investec to support our growth,” he added.
Olivier Fricot, head of power and infrastructure lending, Investec, said: “Investec supported Canadian Solar in its first RO based project financing. It further endorses the expertise of our team in the UK renewables sector. This transaction represents a significant deal with one of the leading global solar energy players, and we look forward to further developing this relationship in a number of geographies where our respective organizations operate.”
Investec now claims to have funded more than 350MW of solar in the UK.
