SunEdison secures finance for Chilean project
SunEdison has announced the closing of a US$ 155 million non-recourse debt financing arrangement with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), and CorpBanca, a prominent Chilean commercial bank, who also provided a local Chilean Peso VAT facility equivalent to US $35 million. The debt proceeds will be used in Chile for the construction of a 72.8 MWp (megawatt) merchant solar power plant.
Interconnection of the 72.8 MWp plant is expected to take place during 2014. Once completed, the project, called "Maria Elena" and located in the Antofagasta region of Chile, is set to become one of the largest solar photovoltaic merchant power plants in Latin America and one of the largest in the world. Electricity generated from the merchant solar plant will be fed directly into the Chilean national electricity grid and will be sold directly in the spot market without any incentive support.
Jose Perez, president, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America for SunEdison, stated: "Today marks a new milestone in the energy industry "“ this power plant demonstrates that photovoltaic solar energy can compete with traditional energy sources and win. It is an international benchmark for the development of solar energy."
SunEdison will own and operate the plant as part of its ongoing strategy to maximize retained value. Once operational, the solar systems will be managed by the SunEdison Renewable Operation Center (ROC), which provides global 24/7 asset management, monitoring and reporting services. Data collected from the ROC is used to continuously improve the company's products, project designs and service offerings.
