Mar 18 2014
SunEdison, Inc., a leading solar technology manufacturer and provider of solar energy services, has been awarded ProjectFinance Magazine's prestigious "Latin America Solar Deal of the Year" award for its San Andres solar power plant in Chile.
The 50.7 MWp San Andres project is set to become one the largest solar photovoltaic merchant plant in the world. According to ProjectFinance Magazine, this is the first merchant solar project in Chile, and the first fully merchant power project anywhere in Latin America. The plant is designed to transmit electricity directly to the Central Interconnected System (SIC) and will sell all of its production in the spot market.
This innovative financing arrangement enabled one of the largest solar PV projects in Latin America, and marked significant growth for SunEdison and the region. In November 2013 SunEdison announced the closing of a $100.4 million non-recourse debt financing arrangement with the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, for the construction of San Andres in the Atacama region of Chile. OPIC provided U.S. $62.9 million of debt, IFC provided a parallel loan of U.S. $37.5 million and Rabobank provided a local Chilean Peso VAT facility for the equivalent of U.S. $25.6 million.
"We are pleased and proud that ProjectFinance honored this unique project with its award. 'San Andres' represents significant growth for SunEdison and Chile's PV industry, and significant value creation for SunEdison, our investors, and our customers in Latin America," said Jose Perez, SunEdison's President of EMEA and Latin America. "This award emphasizes SunEdison's ability to develop innovative project finance structures for our solar energy projects. In 2010 we won this award for our Rovigo solar power plant in Italy, this year's award holds special meaning for us because it validates our accomplishments in Latin America."
SunEdison has Interconnected over 1.4 GW (gigawatts) of solar energy worldwide. Once projects are completed, the SunEdison Renewable Operations Center provides ongoing operations, 24/7 monitoring and alerting, field service dispatch and asset management services.
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