Amarenco Solar expand in Europe
Irish renewable energy firm Amarenco Solar is to expand its presence in Europe with the development of solar barns in France and Corsica. The company has also begun development in the French territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean and Reunion in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa.
The solar barn developments are being carried out in collaboration with local partners in each of the island territories and are expected to be operational from 2019. The combined investment in the three territories is expected to be €50 million in the next number of years.
Back in October 2017, Infram Energy, a platform established by Infracapital and Amarenco Solar to invest in greenfield renewable energy assets across France, Ireland and other European markets, signed a long-term debt facility, arranged by The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. (MUFG), to finance an additional solar portfolio of 16.1MW. This took Infram Energy's total installed capacity to more than 95 MW and over €200 million of total capital invested.
Infram Energy was established in January 2017, consisting of three renewable solar projects in France backed by a 20-year Feed in Tariff.
Infram Energy at the time announced a pipeline for renewable energy projects across Europe and it expected to invest in c.100MW of projects per annum over the coming years. Infram Energy has exclusivity over Amarenco's share of early development projects in the key geographic regions of the UK, Ireland and France and will also be able to source deals from third party developers, constructors and asset owners.
At the time John Mullins, CEO, Infram Energy, said: "We have a healthy pipeline of greenfield projects in France and Ireland and see significant scope to grow further in this space. We are pleased that MUFG has supported us in this transaction and we expect further debt financing to be sought in the short to medium term to facilitate further greenfield projects in support of our strategic financial targets."
